Contessa Lobley
Contessa (Cole) Lobley is the Principal/CEO of CC Consulting Group, LLC and Hey Puddin, LLC. She is also Executive Director/Founder of TBEY Arts Center, Inc. TBEY is a tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization that provides after-school & summer arts education, tutoring, and mentoring programs for Milwaukee youth ages 6-19. TBEY was founded over 22 years ago, by Lobley at the age of 16. After seeing the arts being cut from many schools, she recognized the need for arts programs to keep Milwaukee youth involved in something positive.
She has held a position in community relations at a leading company in Milwaukee, WI, and has held a position within the arts field as an arts administrator. Active in the arts, youth, education, and entrepreneurship programs and initiatives, Lobley has served as a member of the “Catch a Rising Star Foundation”, a foundation developed to assist the “arts” schools in Greater Milwaukee, and “Peace Learning Center”, a conflict resolution program for youth. She sat on the Committee of Usher’s New Look Foundation for the Milwaukee Chapter, a summer camp that helps to empower youth through community service projects. She was a board member of the Center for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and she is an advisory committee member for the Arts Midwest’s GIG Fund and Black Cat Alley. In addition, Lobley has sat on several arts and youth grant panels and review committees.
Lobley received her master’s degree in Cultural Foundations of Education and a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Education with a sub-major in a community-based organization and administrative leadership and a Business Minor from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Ms. Lobley plans to further her education and receive her doctorate in nonprofit management in 2024. She is also a member of the elite leadership development program; Forward 48 cohort Spring 2022.
Lobley has received several acknowledgments, such as her recent honor as a 2022 Women of Influence (Category: Nonprofit Leadership) by the Milwaukee Business Journal. She is also featured in The KNOW Milwaukee chapter November 2021 KNOW publication as a “Woman of Impact” and received “The CEO of Me Business Award” from the Center of Teaching Entrepreneurship, Inc as a young entrepreneur, which was recognized by the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee and its members in November 2010. Lobley was also featured in the inaugural edition of the May 2011 Publication of Who’s who in Black Milwaukee.
Lobley has instructed nonprofit and entrepreneurship classes for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Continuing Education and Milwaukee Public School Recreation Programs. As an active mentor, volunteer, and advocate for the arts, youth development, and entrepreneurship initiatives, Lobley holds a strong commitment to making the Greater Milwaukee area a better place to live and work.