Managing Partner – Operations 
Black Restaurant Week, LLC

Chairwoman of the Board of Directors
Feed the Soul Foundation 

Falayn Ferrell, the Managing Partner of Black Restaurant Week, LLC and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Feed the Soul Foundation, is a native Houstonian.

Falayn earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University. After graduation, she relocated to the New York tri-state area to work for a leading Fortune 500 company. She quickly realized that her true passion lay in helping small businesses with their brand management, and she was most inspired by helping non-profit organizations achieve their vision.

She established Fade Media, a digital marketing firm in Houston, in 2015 with Derek Robinson to develop brand identities, design websites, create marketing collateral, and organize strategies for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. In 2016, Fade Media was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marketing Association for its outstanding work in design and branding.

In 2016, Falayn Ferrell partnered with Warren LuckeV and Derek Robinson to organize Black Restaurant Week in Houston, TX and now serves as a Managing Partner over Operations for the initiative. The annual national awareness campaign supports over 1,700 Black-owned culinary businesses across the United States – including Toronto and Vancouver – through its restaurant weeks, culinary events, and website directory. Black Restaurant Week garners over 188 million impressions annually for the black culinary industry through press and media outlets. The campaign and its participants have been featured in local and national media outlets such as Good Morning America, New York Times, Essence, Bloomberg, and more. In 2021, Black Restaurant Week was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marke@ng Associa@on for its remarkable work in special events marketing.

In 2020, Black Restaurant Week established Feed the Soul Foundation to support sustainability and growth amongst minority culinary businesses. Since 2020, Feed the Soul Founda@on provided over $1,955,000 in business development and financial support to Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses across the US. The foundation established a National Emergency Relief Fund to aid culinary businesses across the nation and has provided $34,000 to assist businesses with unforeseen and natural disasters and restaurant equipment repair. The foundation has also awarded $75,000 in scholarships to minority hospitality and business students at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career & Technical High School, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Florida A&M University, and Morehouse College.

Falayn continues her passion for serving others through her community efforts by serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership.