Our Founder
Dawn-Marie Gray is the founder of Sunshine Matter and creator of the CI Operating System™. A brand architect and cultural systems designer, she brings more than 20 years of experience connecting brand, culture, data, and experience. Her work has produced measurable results across revenue, growth, trust, engagement, and retention for Fortune 500 companies, government contractors, and mission-driven organizations.
She is a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE®), a Howard University alumna, and a two-time DEI Executive of the Year. Her work is grounded in a simple principle: Culture Before Code.
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2020s
Career Timeline
The Rise of Cultural Influence
Cultural Snapshot
What Dawn-Marie was building
At Reebok, Dawn-Marie helped launch urban marketing campaigns featuring elite athletes like Allen Iverson, Shawn Kemp, and Emmitt Smith at the moment when sports marketing and hip-hop culture were becoming inseparable.
The launch of Iverson’s first signature shoe at Malik Yoba’s Soul Café in NYC captured a defining moment where sports, entertainment, fashion, and Black culture converged in one room.
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Dawn-Marie's work in the 90s helped shape an early blueprint for culture-first marketing rooted in real community, not borrowed cool.
Black Culture Goes Mainstream
Cultural Snapshot
What Dawn-Marie was building
Supported Timberland’s West Coast market expansion, tying the brand to real communities, artists, and athletes rather than abstract “urban” personas.
Led multicultural campaigns for Volkswagen, including NBA All-Star Weekend work and collaborations with talent like Outkast, Donnell Rawlings, Regina King, and Swizz Beatz.
Helped bring Microsoft’s Softwear initiative to life with Common, connecting a tech company to hip-hop heritage through apparel, storytelling, and intimate launch experiences.
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Marketing Campaign
Marketing Campaign
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Marketing Campaign
Marketing Campaign
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Dawn-Marie's work in the 2000s showed that relevance comes from participation, presence, and trust.
Data, Diversity, and Growth
Cultural Snapshot
What Dawn-Marie was building
At CVS Health, Dawn-Marie launched the company's multicultural marketing practice, generating $64M in incremental revenue despite flat annual consumer visits.
She expanded Project Health's screening and wellness campaigns nationwide, increasing co-op funding and ROI to directly support health access in underserved communities.
Healthy Beauty and Spanish-language consumer initiatives followed, including converting the e-commerce site into a Spanish-language resource that became one of the most visited pharmacy sites among Hispanic consumers.
Enterprise-wide, she operationalized strategic diversity management—advising senior leaders, increasing BIPOC recruitment and promotion, and embedding accountability frameworks.
High-profile experiential work followed, including the Barclays Uber Visa launch featuring Kevin Hart, bridging multicultural insight with celebrity-driven live experience.
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Dawn-Marie's work in the 2010s proved that cultural relevance and business performance are strongest when they move together.
Culture as Infrastructure
Cultural Snapshot
What Dawn-Marie continues building
POSTERIZED: The Chicago Experience during NBA All-Star Weekend 2020 turned a basketball moment into an immersive story about the city, the game, and the culture.
The ESSENCE Festival of Culture Men's Experience and Spades Tournament gave Black men space to be seen, celebrated, and in conversation about identity, joy, and responsibility.
NABOB Conference experiences positioned Black media leaders at the center of industry conversations.
Winter White Wonder and other premium events blended philanthropy, entertainment, and storytelling.
At Cadmus, she led Culture & Engagement, driving a 46% reduction in attrition over two years through an integrated culture strategy, leadership academies, and data-driven accountability.
This work evolved into Sunshine Matter's CI Operating System™—a 3D Strategic Approach (Discover, Dream, Deliver) built to treat culture as infrastructure, not afterthought.
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