Meet The Team

  • The people who show up every day, in every kitchen, with every young person. We're builders, mentors, educators, and believers in what's possible.

THE FRAMEWORK

Kind Kitchen Group is led by Chef Sicily Sierra and Chef Melanie Wilkerson, with support from a dedicated team of staff, facilitators, and volunteers who share our mission and values.

We believe in:

  • Lived experience — Our team reflects the communities we serve

  • Continuous learning — We're always growing in our understanding of SEL, equity, and food systems

  • Showing up — Consistency, care, and commitment to young people and adults

  • Shared leadership — Everyone's voice matters in how we build this work

OUR CO-FOUNDERS

The Kitchen Was Always the Answer

Kind Kitchen Group was founded by two Black female chefs who lived and understood the barriers they now work to dismantle. Their story is the story of what's possible when you refuse to accept the world as it's been handed to you.

Excellence and Community Are Not In Competition

Chef Sicily and Chef Melanie represent a powerful truth: You can build a world-class culinary career AND show up for the young people in your community. You can master your craft AND open doors for others. You can be ambitious AND be rooted.

Together, they prove that the most powerful thing you can do with excellence is share it.

Every program Kind Kitchen Group offers, every young person we mentor, every kitchen we build is proof that transformation is possible — when the people leading the work have lived the journey themselves.

Chef Sicily

Co - Founder & Head Chef of Impact

As Head Chef of Impact, co-founder, and driving force behind Kind Kitchen Group, Chef Sicily Sierra is not your average chef. She is a bona fide Hollywood veteran who began her career as a child star, making her television debut on an Emmy Award-winning episode of Sesame Street before going on to appear as Angela Bassett's niece in the iconic film "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and playing Young Aisha in the legendary Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. She then cemented her place in Black television history as the beloved Spirit Jones on UPN's culturally defining hit "One on One".

But make no mistake — Sicily didn't simply walk away from the spotlight and find a hobby; she made a calculated, passionate, and unstoppable move, earning her culinary degree with honors from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in 2010 and building a commanding 17-year career as a chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur, and culinary educator that stands magnificently on its own.

She pioneered community-focused restaurants, founded a CPG company, sat on prestigious culinary advisory boards in New York, and co-founded a nonprofit that is literally changing young lives through food. As Sicily herself says, "chasing my dreams has always been my privilege — and now I give that back to young people," and that truth is written in every kitchen she enters, every stage she commands, and every life she helps transform.

Chef Sicily Sierra didn't trade one career for another — she conquered two worlds completely, and then turned around and opened the door for everyone coming behind her.

Chef Melanie

Co - Founder

Chef Melanie Wilkerson is a culinary powerhouse whose story began not in a professional kitchen, but in the quiet wisdom of her grandmother's hands — a single string bean from North Carolina that ignited a lifelong love for fresh, seasonal ingredients and the deep, unspoken language of food. She carried that spark into some of the most prestigious 5-star kitchens in the world, earning Michelin Bib Gourmand and Forbes Five Star recognition for her innovative artistry and meticulous attention to detail — the kind of acclaim that only comes to those who are truly built for this.

With over 15 years of commanding top restaurant kitchens, Chef Melanie mastered the rare combination of extraordinary culinary skill and visionary leadership that most people spend a lifetime chasing. And yet, the accolades were never the point. Her greatest satisfaction has always come from watching a young, underrepresented chef find their voice, their confidence, and their calling — because Chef Melanie has always understood that the most powerful thing you can do with excellence is share it.

She is a champion for sustainable, responsible sourcing, a mentor who genuinely changes lives, and a living reminder that food is more than nourishment — it is a bridge between cultures, a language of love, and a tool for transformation.

Chef Melanie Wilkerson didn't just build a career. She built a legacy that stretches all the way back to a grandmother's kitchen in North Carolina — and every young chef she mentors, every community she feeds, every life she touches is proof that one string bean, shared with love, can change the world.

OUR TEAM

  • Aditi Iyer

    YOUNG AG CULTIVATOR

    Aditi Iyer is a second-year Duke University undergraduate pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with minors in Chemistry and Environmental Science. Her research spans neurological health equity, pediatric traumatic brain injury, and asylum-seeker neurocognitive assessment across institutions including Harvard Massachusetts General Hospital and Duke's Bass Connections program. Beyond research, Aditi is passionate about community health and sustainability, volunteering weekly with a fresh produce distribution program and leading environmental and cultural initiatives on campus.

  • Thérèse Nelson

    CULINARY CURRICULUM ARCHITECT

    Thérèse Nelson is a chef, writer, and cultural archivist whose work examines the intersections of Black Culinary History, the food of the African diaspora, and American foodways. In her board service with Kind Kitchen Group, she assists initiatives rooted in community building, interrogating cultural identity, and building equitable access to culinary knowledge.

    My favorite food memory is of my grandmother making her white lima beans with cornbread. It was an all-day ritual. She would begin in the morning, building a rich, milky ham broth that simmered slowly for hours. By late afternoon, she’d add onions and fat, flat lima beans, letting them simmmer until they turned plump and creamy. Alongside, she’d bake slightly sweet Jiffy cornbread. The smell of those beans and that cornbread together is still one of the most vivid and comforting food scents I carry with me.

    My least favorite food? Donut peaches. I don’t trust them. They’re adorable little things—cute, fragrant, full of promise. When they’re good, they’re transcendent. But when they’re bad? Devastating.

  • Savannah Bowman

    COMMUNITY CHANGEMAKER

    I am an English teacher from Mt. Airy, North Carolina, who loves taking a nap, eating snacks, and hanging out with her loved ones! As an educator, I bring a student-centered approach that is rooted in academic excellence and a focus on literacy as a vehicle for understanding the world!

    My favorite food memory is sitting in my miniature recliner watching my grandparents and parents make apple butter in a cast-iron stew pot outside, while I made sure my sister couldn't change the channel on the TV.

    Least favorite food/ingredient: seafood

  • Taylor Outler, MPH

    DIRECTOR OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING

    I’m a first-generation college graduate, Black woman, Pisces, and oldest sister who believes lived experience is a powerful form of leadership. As an equity-rooted program strategist and community builder, I design people-centered programs and partnerships at the intersection of public health, education, and community impact—building spaces, systems, and experiences that expand access, center joy, and help communities thrive.

    My favorite food memory was my grandma's spaghetti! It always featured a massive meatball; it was delicious and always my favorite Sunday meal! '

    My least favorite foods are avocado and jello. Not. A. Fan. I’m a very big texture person, and those do not meet the mark.


  • Stacey Sprenz

    KITCHEN RESOURCE CULTIVATOR

    There are several aging family photo albums that contain photos of Stacey holding up large bunches of carrots, standing in front of a table full of freshly dug new potatoes, and bent over the strawberry patch gathering the ripest, sweetest berries. This childhood gave her an immense appreciation for the energy and time that goes into planting and nurturing what we eat. Stacey’s interest in food began with the wonder of putting a seed in the ground, tending to it, and later eating the delicious results.

    Stacey has worked in mental health education, as a special education teacher, and most recently as a freelance photographer who focuses on the food, beverage, and agricultural communities. Sharing knowledge with others, cooking with fresh ingredients, and volunteering her time is how she spends the majority of her days. She calls Durham NC home. 

    My favorite food memory is dipping strawberries from our garden in sugar as I watched after-school cartoons. That syrupy strawberry goodness left over in the bottom of the bowl was heavenly.

    My least favorite food is eggplant. Go ahead and try to change my mind.