Staff Profile

Raynique’s unique life experiences—spanning the country from her upbringing in California to her professional career in the Charleston area—have equipped her to be among the Lowcountry’s most influential community organizers. Born and raised in Watts in the historic Jordan Downs Housing Projects, Raynique developed a sense of tenacity, grit, and perseverance early on. Her large family taught her teamwork and patience, skills Raynique employs each day in her role as the co-executive director of CAJM, where she oversees a portfolio of 150 relationships with volunteers, community organizations, and stakeholders and leads an organization with hundreds of Network Members committed to addressing root causes to poverty and injustice. In her own life, she has seen the need to hold people in positions of power accountable, as they often abuse their authority to harm individuals and communities. In school, Raynique became aware of the reality of racism while attending an all-white school in San Diego and observing the abundance of resources, such as restorative responses to discipline, healthy school lunches, new textbooks, and a competitive academic curriculum. In adulthood, Raynique was inspired to pursue community organizing after seeing the flaws in the education, housing, and other systems that people navigate each day. “I began to use my voice to outline the deficiencies in the systems in order to create better,” Raynique said. Raynique’s work in organizing began in 2015 when she moved from California to Charleston to build a better future for herself and her three children. It was a leap of faith that is slowly beginning to understand. Her involvement in CAJM started as a Team Leader for Charity Missionary Baptist, located in the historic Liberty Hill neighborhood. She later joined the staff as an associate organizer and now serves as one of CAJM’s co-executive directors. Raynique leads CAJM’s campaigns to several victories. Raynique managed CAJM’s education campaign, which successfully advanced the implementation of Restorative Practices in Charleston County schools. This work resulted in a written plan being adopted by the Charleston County School District for Restorative Practices, which seeks to create a strong sense of community, foster a sense of belonging, and support students in their social and emotional development. Raynique’s leadership of CAJM’s transportation campaign made possible the illumination of inequitable fare policies being practiced by the local transportation authority. As a result, she helped bring about change to CARTA fare policies, including: elimination of transfer fee charges, offering weekly unlimited pass, and allowing seniors to use their discounted fares during peak hours. In addition to her role with CAJM, Raynique also serves in many other capacities that include the following: member of the Board of Directors for Metanoia, a local nonprofit committed to providing affordable housing and seeking the positive transformation of communities; the 2023/2024 cohort for Power 50, a nine-month cohort that provides women of color in leadership with organizing and management skills with deep grounding, tools, practices, political analysis and relationships; fellow of the Black to the Future Public Policy Institute, a leadership training fellowship that provides leaders with the tools needed to transform Black communities into constituencies that wield independent, Black political power. When she’s not organizing communities and using her experiences to bring people together to tear down systems that perpetuate injustice, Raynique enjoys spending time with family, reading, cooking, dancing, and being in nature, particularly by the water.