Building While Being Present

Kevin Barnett, BA '06, offers an honest conversation about what it means to build something meaningful while showing up fully as a father. Drawing from his experience founding CoolxDad, this webinar highlights the importance of intentional decision-making, values-based leadership, and creating legacy through both business and family.

About Kevin Barnett
Kevin Barnett is the founder and director of CoolxDad, a Houston-based nonprofit organization that aims to aid and uplift fathers of color, their children, and their communities.

Kevin grew up in Brooklyn, NYC. The child of a single mother and a survivor of childhood cancer, he learned early on how to mask feelings of abandonment brought on by a largely absent father. That experience would inform the rest of his life.

After graduating from the University of Buffalo, Kevin formed strong networks through a career in retail management and as the founder of his own creative production company, Nett Lifestyle. He has worked with esteemed clients and brands in the entertainment, sports, and hospitality industries. But nothing has changed and grounded Kevin’s mission so much as being a husband and father. Kevin founded CoolxDad after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, when he saw the need for healing spaces for fathers and father figures in communities of color. CoolxDad’s mission is to combat the epidemic of fatherlessness in American households. Kevin works every day in pursuit of that goal, curating family-focused events, organizing community service initiatives, and seeking collaborations that amplify CoolxDad’s message.