Fancy Mills

Fancy Mills

Senior Consultant

Fancy Mills Knebel has over twenty years of organizational development experience that spans consulting, facilitation, and human resource development. She has authored multiple videos on LinkedIn Learning including topics on Management Fundamentals, IT Service Desk: Service Management, IT Service Desk Customer Service Fundamentals, and IT Service Desk Careers and Certifications: First Steps. As a consultant, she has advised, trained and certified thousands of leaders including executives, managers, analysts, technicians, and corporate trainers around the world in virtual and classroom environments. 

In addition to training, she has developed and facilitated customized curriculum for Fortune 500 companies in the areas of generational intelligence, emotional intelligence, performance and process improvement, conflict management, customer experience, quality management, workforce management, presentation, communication, and time management skills. 

She received her Master of Science Degree in Human Resource Development with a specialization in Adult Education from Texas A&M University. She is a published author on generational conflict strategies featured in the 2018 publication “Cultural Impact on Conflict Management in Higher Education” and was a featured speaker at the 2016 TEDx TAMU speaking on The XYZ Strategies for Succeeding in a Multi-Generational World. She served on the Texas A&M Graduate Advisory Board and the Steering Committee for The Academy for Future Faculty and was awarded the 2016 AFF Senior Fellow. She was selected to serve as a Texas A&M Student Representative Commencement speaker for December 2017 graduation ceremonies. 

As a fifth generation Texan, she lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, son, and puppy Rio. She’s an avid sports fan and enjoys rooting for the Texas A&M Aggies and all Dallas sports teams. Her favorite team is anyone that her son is playing on!

Fancy Mills in the Spotlight

Raised in Public Service

Fancy Mills grew up with a deep understanding of what it means to serve.

Her mother was a thirty-year veteran schoolteacher and as the daughter of an Air Force Commander and pilot, granddaughter of an Army pilot, sister of an Air Force reservist, and wife of a Naval soldier, Fancy’s family has shown the willingness to set themselves aside and serve their country.
“My entire life, I’ve been surrounded by people who take service really seriously, which has also impacted my choice of career,” Fancy said.

Military life, Fancy said, also contributed to her having a close-knit family and played a major role in the level of confidence she brings to her career.

“My early life helped me build a lot of confidence. We moved quite frequently, so I had to go to new schools and make new friends quickly. This led directly into my career because my entire career I’ve had to walk into rooms and establish credibility quickly.”

A Career Empowering Leaders

After earning her bachelor’s degree from Sam Houston State, Fancy went to work as an account manager and recruiter with Volt Services Group. This led to the role she would carry for the next two decades of her career; working as a facilitator, training, curriculum developer and later as the director of training with Informa Tech.

“I started off in personal development and training and recruiting,” she said. “Then I moved into training and consulting with processes and procedures, which morphed into coaching.”

With a master’s degree in human resource development, adult education from Texas A&M, Fancy is now earning her doctorate from A&M in the same field with the end goal of becoming a professor and teaching students like herself how to follow her career path.

“I feel like what is missing in higher education at the undergraduate and graduate level both are professors who have been in the trenches, who have worked in the field and have real-world knowledge and experience to share,” she said. “I felt that there needed to be more people in higher education like me – female, tech-savvy, travelled the world, and worked with large corporations – who can go in and teach students how things really work.” 



“I look at my PhD and subsequent teaching as another phase of service to help prepare students for the real world,” she added.

A Welcomed Addition to the CI International Team

In her new role with CI, Fancy is looking to return to working with individuals as a coach and trainer.

“I was really excited about CI because the past couple of roles I have been in were as a director in the corporate space,” she said. “I really wanted to get back to what I loved doing, which is working with individuals, especially leaders, to develop their skills, coach them, and work one-on-one with people.”
Fancy believes working with CI will now allow her to be a part of training and developing new leaders in the public sector.

“A lot of people don’t think of themselves as leaders, which I think is a problem,” she said. “Early in my career, I worked at a startup where everyone was called a Leader. Everyone had to lead the company, and that was really powerful because it gave you a lot of ownership along with accountability to get work done. We have been very devoid of this type of mindset in the corporate world and in government in particular. We have to grow more leaders and create a world where there is more ownership and more accountability.”

Outside of Work

Fancy enjoys many activities outside of work, including live music, playing with her rescue puppy Rio, playing tennis in USTA leagues and with her husband Kevin, playing golf and supporting her Texas A&M Aggies and Dallas based sports teams. She currently serves on the board for Reverse Rett, Texas Heritage Songwriters Association, Cindy Walker Foundation, and Young Men’s Service League where she with her son Mills volunteer together for various service projects in the community.