Meet Our Founder: Rachel Wyley
Founder & Principal, Culture Kinesis
Who Rachel Is
Rachel Wyley is a cultural strategist and organizational transformation facilitator with deep experience across various sectors, including education, nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and executive facilitation. Her work bridges rigorous organizational analysis with the creative and relational practices required for lasting individual and institutional change.
Rachel is known for her ability to:
Surface unspoken cultural dynamics
Facilitate conflict with clarity and care
Help leaders build cultures capable of navigating complexity and change
“True transformation begins long before policy or strategy; it begins with culture.”
Rachel’s Story & Professional Journey
Rachel began her career as an educator in East Oakland, where she developed a lifelong commitment to community, trust-building, and collective accountability. She has held roles ranging from entry-level staff to Executive Director across nonprofit and education-based organizations.
As a Black woman navigating leadership within well-intentioned institutions, Rachel repeatedly encountered the same limitation: organizations that named inclusion as a value but lacked the relational infrastructure and cultural foundation required for those efforts to succeed.
She concluded her nonprofit career as an Executive Director, an experience that sharpened her understanding of systems, power, institutional inheritance, and the limits of reform without cultural reckoning.
“Equity cannot take root in cultures that have yet to be examined, healed, and reimagined.”
Why Rachel Founded Culture Kinesis
Rachel founded Culture Kinesis in 2021 to address a critical gap in organizational change work.
Culture Kinesis is not a reaction to a moment, it is an invitation into cultural reimagination. It is an approach that focuses on the foundational and preparatory elements of cultural transformation, offering programs that function as critical leadership development, creative organizational strategy, and prerequisites to effective DEI.
Culture Kinesis helps organizations:
Build cultures capable of navigating conflict and complexity
Develop relational trust and accountability
Interrupt inherited patterns of harm
Create the conditions for sustainable equity and alignment
Learn How Culture Kinesis Supports Organizations
Fellowships & Professional Affiliations
Alumna, Women of Color LeadStrong Fellowship, The LeaderSpring Center*
Co-Facilitator, LeadStrong African-American Women’s Fellowship, The LeaderSpring Center (2023–Present)
InAccord Certified Mediator and Arbitrator (2022–Present)
The LeaderSpring Center is one of four pioneering leadership development programs in the U.S., as nationally recognized by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
Speaking & Facilitation Experience
Rachel is a sought-after speaker known for her ability to shift the emotional and relational field of a room and to catalyze new ways of thinking for audiences.
Selected Speaking Engagements
Learning For Action Equity Learning Lab – Telling the Story of Equity Work (2022)
Candid Webinar – Establish an Organizational Culture That Supports Your DEI Initiatives (2022)
PropelNext Alumni Speaking & Learning Series (2023)
Equity Odyssey – Inspiration from the Field with adrienne maree brown, in partnership with Learning for Action and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2023)
Atascadero Chamber of Commerce – Women of Influence Luncheon (2023, 2024 – Keynote speaker)
Liberation Labs Virtual Panel– We Can't Afford to Wait: How to Create Workplaces That Uplift Black Women (2024)
Liberation Labs Virtual Panel – How to Continue Building Spaces for Psych Safety, Solidarity, and Self-Advocacy (2025)
Candid Virtual Panel – Nonprofit leaders speak on people-centered philanthropy (2025)
Western Association of Chamber Executives Conference Annual Conference – IGNITE Your Mind, Chamber & Soul (2026)
Audience Reflections
“Rachel brought everyone in the room onto the same plane and then settled us there together.”
“Her exceptional crowd-facilitation skills are truly amazing. She excels at entering a room and discussing complex topics with ease.”
“She brings inspiration to the space. She doesn’t just ask questions to make aspirational points. [Rachel]provides real practical skills and knowledge."
"Diversity enhances conversations. The most rewarding experience comes from a truly diverse mix of people across various ages, artistic backgrounds, and races. Rachel recognized and clearly expressed this essential quality, a valuable insight that often requires an outside viewpoint."
— Culture Kinesis Client