Our Team
Senior Facilitator
Dr. Macheo Payne
Macheo is a social worker & educator with over 25 years experience. He is an experienced organizational leader, most notably as the executive director of the Oakland Freedom Schools for 9 years as well as a senior director at Lincoln Families for 10 years. Macheo has also been a professor on the faculty of the MSW dept. at CSUEB for 9 years.
Macheo’s passion and expertise is in designing systems change that supports culture & identity of families, taking into account the environment, context and other social determinants of health, wealth and opportunity. With a strong mental health background, Macheo integrates knowledge of social emotional growth & development with Critical Race Theory to address institutional bias and workforce bias.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from University California, Berkeley, a Masters of Social Work from California State University, East Bay and a Doctor of Education from San Francisco State University.
Head of Learning & Transformation
Selena Wilson
Selena has a unique background that combines deep knowledge and experience in youth development, adult learning and performance, culture and engagement, and organizational change. A native of Oakland, California, she spent several years leading elementary school enrichment programming with the City of Piedmont before serving as a management consultant for the Organization Transformation and Talent division of Deloitte Consulting working to deliver large-scale change initiatives.
In addition to her work with Decolonize Design, Selena currently serves as the Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Services from Holy Names University and a Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change.
Community Organizer
cELINA CULVER
Celina brings unique combination of project management, grassroots campaign management, community organizing and design thinking. She is a graduate of Princeton University and received certificates in Latin American Studies and Dance. Her areas of expertise include labor rights, police accountability, political theory, racial equity, and arts advocacy.
Senior Operations Associate
Santiago Facundo
Santiago comes to Decolonize Design with both prior on the ground experience with a variety of nonprofits and consulting experience. During his time as an Associate Consultant at VIVA Social Impact Partners, Santiago was project manager. He supported clients across a wide variety of operational, research and learning development workstreams. Additionally, Santiago supported various communications projects for clients which ranged from social media management and content development, as well as bilingual communications (English and Spanish), to video storyboard development and website copy drafting. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and a Certificate in Latino Studies from Princeton University.
Community Organizer
Kelsei Wharton
Kelsei focuses on media and entertainment strategy, youth organizing programming, community engagement, and strategic partnerships in support of young leaders in person and online. Previously, he was the Associate Director for External Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services and a member of the Youth Venture team at Ashoka, a non-profit focused on social entrepreneurship as a tool for creating an impact. He attended Stanford University where he studied International Relations and African & African American Studies.
Research & Operations Associate
Alexandra Gessesse
Alexandra’s research expertise is in housing and inheritance policies surrounding the origins and evolution of fair housing policy. She has also worked to facilitate several coalitions’ missions by analyzing the role of race and ethnicity in local, national, and international public policy engagement. Alexandra examines critical case studies of several policies: regional development, social welfare, environment, and criminal justice.
Most recently, Alexandra researched the effects of a term she coined, “Digital Redlining,” which examines the effects of race, gender, and stereotypes on online algorithms and accessible internet data for the. Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Black Studies in Social Policy and Politics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
SENIOR ADVISORS
Founder & Futurist
Aida Mariam Davis
Aida is a partner, daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, activist and leader committed to solving the adaptive challenges of our time. Her breadth and depth of experience spans community & labor organizing, campaign management, co-design methods and policy consulting. Inspired by her ancestors, elders and colleagues she created the Belonging, Dignity, Justice and Joy (BDJJ) Framework as an alternative to the superficial and harmful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) approach.
She is leading a movement to create a just and fair society in which all are participating, prospering and reaching their full potential. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and African American studies from University California, Berkeley in addition to a Masters Degree from University of Southern California in Public Policy and Public Administration.
Senior Advisor
Dr. Michael McAfee
Michael became President and CEO of PolicyLink in 2018, seven years after becoming the inaugural director of the Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink. His results-driven leadership, depth of knowledge about building and sustaining an organization, and devotion to serving the nation’s most underserved populations made him the obvious choice to lead the 20-year-old PolicyLink as Angela Glover Blackwell transitioned to founder in residence.
During his time at PolicyLink, Michael has played a leadership role in securing Promise Neighborhoods as a permanent federal program, led efforts to improve outcomes for more than 300,000 children, and facilitated the investment of billions of dollars in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. He is the catalyst for a new and growing body of work — corporate racial equity — which includes the first comprehensive tool to guide private-sector companies in assessing and actively promoting equity in every aspect of their company’s value chain. Michael carries forward the legacy to realize the promise of equity — just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.
Senior Advisor
Fania Davis
Fania is a leading national voice on the intersection of racial and restorative justice. She is a long-time social justice activist, civil rights trial attorney, restorative justice practitioner, and writer and scholar with a PhD in indigenous knowledge.
Founding director of Restorative Justice of Oakland Youth, her numerous honors include the Ubuntu Award for Service to Humanity, the Dennis Maloney Award for Youth-Based Community and Restorative Justice, the Tikkun Olam (Repair the World) Award, the Ella Jo Baker Human Rights Award, the Bioneers Change Maker Award, and the EBONY Power 100 Community Crusaders Award.
She is a Woodrow Wilson fellow, and the Los Angeles Times named her a “New Civil Rights Leader of the 21st Century.” She resides in Oakland, California.