our team
We are a collective of predominantly Black, Indigenous, and racialized strategists who blend systems expertise with lived experience to help institutions make more equitable decisions. Our team of practitioners brings together policy insight, strategic design, facilitation, and community-rooted knowledge—shaped by work across both institutional and grassroots spaces.
We navigate the tensions between commitments and constraints, translating those lessons into approaches that honour lived experience, deepen trust, and create clear pathways for meaningful systems change. Driven by curiosity, humility, and collaboration, we think, test, and build alongside community partners to ensure that equitable decisions are possible.
Bottom line? We make sure everyone gets a seat at the table—and gets heard.
our people
At Holding Ground Studio, we bring together planners, designers, architects, housing strategists, community health analysts, engagement facilitators, and storytellers because the challenges facing our communities demand solutions that don’t fit in one box.
Our team is intentionally multidisciplinary—rooted in lived experience, sharpened by academic training, and driven by a shared commitment to dismantling outdated planning practices. We exist as a holding ground for black and brown bodies and budding minds entering the field: a space to anchor, imagine boldly, challenge the status quo, and build planning futures that are inclusive, adaptive, and deeply human.
Charlotte Wayara (she/her)
Founder & Managing Principal
Charlotte is an urban planner and strategist whose work bridges community engagement, planning theory, and executive leadership in the community health tech sector. She guides organizations through complex, multi-stakeholder decisions—aligning community priorities, policy frameworks, and operational realities to deliver clear, actionable strategy.
With over eight years of experience across consulting, private development, municipal environments and community health, she has led end-to-end planning and development initiatives, from feasibility and due diligence to public engagement, policy analysis, and approvals. Her expertise includes large-scale surveys, community consultations, geospatial and policy analytics, and translating technical insight into strategic direction. Her executive roles in tech further strengthened her ability to build scalable systems, drive cross-functional alignment, and lead through complexity.
The impetus for the Studio was grounded in her graduate research, which challenged conventional “equitable” and “healthy city” paradigms. Her major research paper—Decolonizing “Greenspace” and the “Equitable City” Paradigm—foregrounded lived experience, trauma, and the impacts of discriminatory housing policy on how Black and Brown communities access, use, and feel in public space. Influenced by Black planning thought, including work such as Black Planning in Action, her practice centers human rights, community-led knowledge, and spatial justice.
Beyond strong technical foundations in planning and policy, she has been engaged in professional and community networks, including MIIPOC York and Toronto Public Green Space, where she worked to support equity-driven practice and inclusive city-building.
For more information around how Holding Ground Studio came together, check out her blog post here.
Jane Doe (she/her)
Engagement & Practice Lead
TBA