Meet the Board

Shamekei L Gray is the founder and leader of the Waylyn Heart Team. The mother of four children too her passion, years of experience, and most importantly- Heart to create a vehicle for change. In July of 2020, Mekei spearheaded a Save Our Youth Rally which called for community members in the Waylyn neighborhood to to put an end to violent crimes by mentoring and teaching at-risk youth in the area.  Together with community members the Waylyn Heart Team was formed in an effort to engage kids by collaborating with different activists, leaders and educators.

Mekei's years of community organizing has included but not limited to:  2006 Constituent School Board Candidate, Lead Organizer for 2011 Sickle Cell Walk i n North Charleston, CEO/Founder of Shotta Kids Foundation, and Sanders Clyde PTA President for 2016, and sitting on the Board for Ronjanae Smith Positive Vibes Center. to list a few. 

Most recently while being a leader with WHT,  Mask Off was founded and created by Mekei to be a safe space for women. Mask Off is an initiative that focuses on being a space of healing, mentoring, and sisterly love to be the best woman possible by helping other women. Outside of being a fulltime mother, she is serving in another motivating role as a minority and women owned business owner with Simply S Creations. Simply S Creations is  a premier crafts, personalization, and specialized décor requests which are hand made with care. Mekei enjoys family, advocacy, walking, uplifting women, and being a member of Seacoast Church. She also enjoys serving as a mentor for young women. 

See the full WHT history here: https://www.waylynheartteam.org/about

Dexter D. White is a writer, editor, community organizer, and corporate trainer. With a combination of over 15 years of experience, Dexter has been involved in social and community projects his entire life since living on "the Waylyn" for over 30 years to neighboring states. He was quite involved during his undergraduate years at Historically Black College/University, Albany State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2010. Then in 2010, he served as a program coordinator for the African American Male Initiative (AAMI)for the office of Multicultural Student Retention Services (MSRS. While helping with the matriculation, progression, and graduation of African American men; he received his Master of Public Administration with a concentration with Nonprofit Management in 2012. Since returning to Charleston in 2013, he is now a corporate trainer and Diversity Equity & Inclusion Chair at a Fortune 500 company.  Dexter was one of the neighbors there for the Youth Rally in 2020. 

His experience as a consultant and organizer with the following organizations will add benefit to his role as Executive Director: Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc, Beyond Services Consultant Services, Psi Chi National Honor Society, SA1, etc. Besides being a public speaker, an editor for local authors, and sitting on the board of Voices United. Dexter loves volunteering, learning, reading, poetry, working out and everything that brings positive vibes.

Whitney served as the YWCA Greater Charleston from 2020-2022 as a youth empowerment & engagement coordinator. As its youth empowerment and engagement coordinator, she assisted in the development, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of programs educating and empowering young women in the Charleston region, including YWCA Greater Charleston's Y Girls Code technology coding program and SheStrong high school advocacy and leadership program. 

She has more than four years of experience in product and customer service, training, supervision, and event planning. She has served as a trainer and style advisor for Target, applying technology from within two stores and its Target Circle app, and has taught English as a second language to sixth grade students from migrant families at Valdosta Middle School in Georgia. She also volunteered her time as secretary chair for Natural Sistas VSU and as fundraising chair for the SHARE in Africa Chapter at Valdosta State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in Spanish.