Chris Kent helps

Chris Phelps is the Founder and CEO of Tacky Box, LLC, a for-purpose company dedicated to creating systemic change in the way children treat one another, and Founder of the 501c3 Campaign for Kindness dba We Train Hearts. She is a graduate of Texas A&M with a Masters degree in Finance, a self-proclaimed recovering C.P.A., a former magazine publisher, and a social entrepreneur and “Mom on a Mission.”

After growing up in a one-light East Texas town, Chris began her career in Ernst & Young’s National Office in New York as an accounting researcher. She returned to Texas in 2002 where she went on to set ad sales records for D Magazine before being quickly promoted into D’s publishing team where she launched four brand extensions including D Home and D CEO.

In 2013, armed with an innovative idea and a heart for change, Chris married her vision for a kinder world with the public education system, and in partnership with her two children and mom, developed an innovative, scalable Social Emotional Learning program that empowers young children to proactively choose kindness over “tacky” words and actions. As part of Tacky Box and her work with We Train Hearts, Chris lives by these words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:

“Just as we take for granted the need to acquire proficiency in the basic academic subjects, I am hopeful that a time will come when we can take it for granted that children will learn, as part of their school curriculum, the indispensability of inner values such as love, compassion, justice and forgiveness.”

Chris is a proud Downtown Dallas resident, a Graduate of Leadership Dallas Class of 2006, a long-time advocate for criminal justice reform, and a firm believer that like-hearted, like-minded people can work together to create a kinder, better world.