Dr. Penny Mickey is the co-founder of a WBENC Certified gourmet popcorn company founded in 2020 with her husband Kennith Mickey.  They are two former college basketball players who turned their zeal for the court to crafting small batch gourmet popcorn.  Mickey’s Popcorn crafts small batch gourmet popcorn with flavors inspired by geographic regions and top shelf spirits. They produce the Trademarked flavor, Tennessee Whiskey Caramel popcorn. This flavor has a licensing partnership with Nearest Green Distillery to co-brand the nation’s most awarded whiskey, Uncle Nearest premium whiskey.

Dr. Mickey is a 25 year workforce development veteran and is a former state Commissioner for the Department of Employment and Training in Kentucky.  The company operates as a social enterprise and Mickey’s Popcorn strives to create economic mobility among historically hard-to-serve populations that are close to the husband-and-wife duo’s hearts. The company, in collaboration with their non-profit Gradus Project, provides paid short-term job placements to help build employability skills, especially among disadvantaged youth and domestic violence survivors. Graduates are then assisted in their transition to more permanent work.

She is a graduate of Fisk University and Vanderbilt University and she and her husband Kenneth are a blended family and the parents of Kenneth, Kenaniah and Kylan.