Dreena Whitfield-Brown Is A Top Black Female Founder for 2025
April 4, 2025
Dreena Whitfield-Brown is one of only eight Black women recognized as a 2025 Inc. Female Founders 500 honoree.
Dreena Whitfield-Brown is one of only eight Black women recognized as a 2025 Inc. Female Founders 500 honoree.
The recognition hasn’t set in yet.
“I’m still processing it,” she told BLACK ENTERPRISE as she reflected on her journey. “I started my company in my living room. I didn’t have any clients and didn’t even know how to do a contract. Google was my best friend. For me to be featured as an Inc. female founder is nothing but God.”
Whitfield-Brown’s journey began with a frustration that Black women know all too well: being passed over for opportunities. Research from Harvard Kennedy School details the unique challenges Black women face in the workplace. The study found that when Black women start their careers working with a higher percentage than their white colleagues, they are more likely to leave their jobs sooner and are less likely to be promoted.
She had had enough of firms offering internships despite her work experience. So, she started her own public relations agency and gave birth to her first baby, WhitPR, in 2010. It’s now one of the leading minority-owned firms in the country — a long way from her humble beginnings when she launched the agency in the living room of her one-bedroom apartment with no clients or media contacts.
Your Circle Matters: How Friends Got Her Started
Whitfield-Brown will be the first to tell aspiring new business owners to be patient and utilize the resources. Her first clients were the people in her inner circle.
“It was a bit of trial and error,” she said. “One of my first clients was one of my close friends. We were building our businesses at the same time, and she was the perfect case study for me.”
Success did not happen overnight, and neither did the money. She worked a retail job for three years to make ends meet. However, as she continued balancing a career and building her brand, others took note, and new clients started coming in. Her first big opportunity was for former Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s nonprofit.
“I got that contract to see word of mouth. They ultimately became my first [big] paying client, which then opened more doors.”
WhitPR is an integrated strategic communications agency that shapes and amplifies culture-driven narratives. The agency champions cultural creators, moments, and movements. Its clients represent the social impact space, personal care, lifestyle, and athletic industries.
Her portfolio of clients includes Black Ambition, Black Love, Inc., Hallmark Mahogany, Morrow Hospitality, Prudential Financial, Thread Beauty, the Warner Music Group Social Justice Fund, and so much more.
Black Women Can Have It All, But It Takes Balance
Let Whitfield-Brown be proof that Black women can have it all despite the ongoing conversations and unsolicited studies about how Black women are three times as likely as white women never to marry.
Her then-boyfriend turned now-husband has been supporting her from the beginning. When she’s not working, the duo are likely at AAU basketball games on the weekends or at birthday parties for their most demanding clients (their children), all while she continues to scale her brand.
When you ask how she does it, she says therapy has helped her manage her many hats.
“My therapist has talked me out of bringing my laptop into my bedroom because that’s my sacred space,” she admits. “I still struggle with that because I’m the type that if I can’t get it done during the day, I will get it done after we have dinner and put the kids down, but that doesn’t allow me time to pour into myself.”
What’s Next For Dreena Whitfield-Brown?
As someone who prides herself on staying behind the scenes to ensure her clients have the spotlight, it will likely take some time for her to celebrate and take in all of her accomplishments, which she rightfully deserves.
Whitfield-Brown says she will continue to scale her business, but her next big task is elevating the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs.
“It’s a major accomplishment that I’ve made the Inc. list, but I am one of only eight Black women and the only one from New Jersey,” she told BE. “I feel that it speaks volumes to the work that is still needed to elevate diverse entrepreneurs.”
She added, “It makes me even more passionate about continuing to do the work and to provide opportunities for not just myself, but just for the next generation of Black women in PR and entrepreneurship.”
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