Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Fox.
Hi Rachel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey All! My name is Rachel Fox, and I am a portfolio creative, entrepreneur, and advocate. I am a NY transplant now living in Northwest Arkansas. Since moving to Arkansas, I have become the founder and Executive Director of NWA GIRL GANG, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Additionally, as a published writer, content creator, influencer, commercial photographer, artist, art educator, and mother of three, my personal and professional endeavors have been inspired by my daughter Eva, who was born with Down Syndrome. With over a decade of experience as a marketing & branding specialist focusing on representation, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, it has been an honor to work with brands, businesses, and nonprofits across the globe.
As I continue to navigate advocacy for Eva and others within the disabled and neurodiverse community, I aspire to educate others, build community, and support marginalized individuals through truly equitable and barrier-free experiences through a lens of disability rights, disability justice, inclusive education, and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. I am deeply passionate about the arts and culture, working as an artist, floral artist, photographer, and avid interior and architectural design enthusiast with a focus on accessible and universal spaces.
In my free time, I enjoy mountain biking and racing. Over the last two years, I have become a certified mountain bike instructor that works with several organizations that get women and other minoritized people on bikes. I spend most of my time with Latinas En Bici, an organization providing educational biking opportunities and activities to women and the Hispanic/Latine community. I love thrift and thrift shops, sourcing antiques and art, and buying second-hand things.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a community, we have made much progress over the last decade in supporting those with disabilities and neuro-differences, but we still have a long way to go! It has been wonderful to see growing representation for those within these communities. Still, it will take persistent efforts, policy change, and challenging discussions for everyone to look at equity for vulnerable and marginalized people.
As a parent of a child that is intellectually and developmentally disabled, it has not been easy trying to advocate for Eva. Still, as parents, we are destined to overcome each challenge as it comes our way in support of a better future for her and her disabled/neurodiverse peers. I welcome these challenges straight on!
My husband likes to say that I accidentally started a nonprofit, which is true! I had no intention of starting a nonprofit. In 2018, I found NW Arkansas to be the perfect place to create a community where (future) Eva could be seen, valued, and supported with my perspective and advocacy in mind. I also had a lot of experience ramping up nationwide platforms, brands, and online communities, so it wasn’t surprising that NWA GIRL GANG became a highly localized and engaged audience. What I didn’t have control over was the very dedicated community that was birthed from this idea.
In 2020, I needed to decide what NWAGG would be. For the last few years, it was a passion project, a labor of love, and entirely self-funded; with very few funds my husband and I had working with entrepreneurial mentors and advisors, it was agreed upon that I had a beautiful nonprofit organization. With much hesitation, I took on the adventure of making NWAGG a nonprofit. I found that the nonprofit landscape is disheartening. Many incredible people are doing incredible things as grassroots organizers and leaders, and that is most definitely true within nonprofits! I learned that some nonprofit founders and executive directors need the education, resources, connections, investors, and funds to be supported as a nonprofit. There is such a thing as marginalized nonprofits and the people they support. I found myself chasing this desire to start a nonprofit, but I failed to see that we couldn’t pay our household bills. I tried to find some contract and freelancing jobs as NWAGG took up most of my days, supporting over 8 thousand people since 2018. Slowly but surely, a small opportunity would present itself, and NWAGG as an organization would get closer to becoming a supported and funded nonprofit.
With much encouragement from my husband, my incredible board, peers, and friends, I preserved and exhausted all my energy and resources trying to make NWAGG a nonprofit a reality. This past June 2023, I became the first and only staff member of the nonprofit organization I founded nearly 5 years ago. I’ve been through countless trials and lifelong hardships and have multiple marginalized identities, but I never could have imagined how hard it would be to start and run a nonprofit. Deep in my heart and bones, I knew this work was worth doing!
It saddens me as a mother to think of all the time I lost with my young children piloting this organization; I will never get that time back. I will have to continue to work through those feelings, but I have no regrets. I have learned and experienced so much that taking on this journey is life-changing and valuable. I am excited to share what I learned in creating this organization with the world. I am beyond happy for what the future holds for me, this organization, and my daughter.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Growing up in New York, I wanted to be a multidisciplinary artist but knew I would succeed more if I had a more specific career choice. I attended college for Art in Advertising, Marketing, Media, and commercial photography and later attended graduate school for art education. I have always had a deep interest in art in marketing and photography and loved being the creative answer to advertising.
When Eva was born in 2012, I discovered the lack of representation across industries for individuals of all ages with disabilities, physical/limb differences, and intellectual/developmental disabilities like Down Syndrome. I wanted to change that and see my daughter represented and others like her! I took my art and photography background and started contacting brands nationwide to contact me for an inclusive branding, marketing, and messaging strategy. I started using Eva as a model and friends in the disability/Down syndrome community to be involved in this process and to share their stories through brand collaboration.
I continued to freelance in marketing with a focus on inclusion and representation. I soon became the Advertising Director and content creator/photographer for a children’s magazine that valued inclusion. With that experience, I took on an additional freelance/contract role ramping up an online community and nationwide platform, wolfandfriends.com. As a design enthusiast, I found myself in 2016 writing design articles and home tours for Design Sponge, Food52, Sunny Circle Design, and other blogs around the topic of thinking outside of ADA compliance, sensory-friendly play spaces, universal and accessible design using my styling, staging, and interior photography. With this experience, I also took on the role of guest content/creator and writer for other blogs and platforms, leading to several articles that shared my experiences as a parent and advocate. When I reached NW Arkansas, I was immediately inspired to start the NWA GIRL GANG with all of my experience as a content creator, ramping up digital and nationwide platforms and as a marketing professional, I also accepted a contract job with Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week and their nonprofit organization INTERFORM ART , @interform.art as Marketing Director until deciding to focus all my time and energy into NWA GIRL GANG. It is still so amazing that my particular art background and my daughter as my muse allowed me to work as a creative freelancer over the last 11 years!
Do you have any advice for those just starting?
Challenge yourself to find your purpose in life. Find out what makes you happy and how it drives you. There are many layers to this, but at the surface, I discovered that my purpose is centered around making art and being creative. In addition to that (and more importantly), bringing people together! I am so passionate about creating experiences for others to share. For me, and in hindsight, this foundation did translate to my career in marketing, as an artist, as an advocate, as a community organizer, and as a nonprofit Founder and Executive Director.
I enjoyed the book, “Ikigai, The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life,” By Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. I believe that is a great place to start if you want to discuss finding your purpose with yourself. Support yourself in realizing and understanding your worth and your value! It took me way too long to work through this, and it was almost too late. I am proud to say that I am going into my 40s, knowing exactly what my time, talents, and expertise are worth! Say “YES” when it feels like a “YES.” Wait and see what happens. It left me with more time to focus on the things that most aligned with my purpose, mission, and values and doing all the things that I love doing the most!
As a freelancer, I said “YES” because I needed money. That’s real. If I could go back in time, I would teach myself how to navigate contracts better, advocate for my worth and value, and ask for more money. I was overqualified for many contracts and making nearly nothing just because I needed to take a job to pay some bills. Please don’t sell yourself short. Do your research about starting a nonprofit. Through my mentoring roles, 8 out of 10 times, I will recommend a community and mission-driven/focused business model over a nonprofit model.
Contact Info:
- Website: nwagirlgang.org
- Instagram: @0utsidetheboxfox ( first o is a zero)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachel.kipphut
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Image Credits
Please check out my Instagram or the NWAGG Instagram/Website for more options. Headshot: Scott Kipphut From Left to Right & Down Anniversary, Photo: J.Webb Photography Rachel & Children, Photo by Scott Kipphut Rachel in Chair, Photo by Reid Pinckard Group Photo at Market, Photo by Social Photo Booth Co. Rachel & Amanda Thattanakham ( co-founder of nwagg market project ), Photo by Seth Biazo NWAGG Collage, Photos taken by Rachel Fox
