Creative Team
Daphne Maxwell Reid, Co-Host
Daphne Maxwell Reid, is best known for her role as the second Vivian Banks on the NBC sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” from 1993 until 1996. Mrs. Reid has appeared in a long series of television programs, among them “Hill Street Blues,” “Hardcastle and McCormick,” “In the House,” “Snoops,” “Frank’s Place,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “The A-Team,” “Matt Houston” and “Murder, She Wrote.” She and her actor husband Tim Reid also formed their own production studio called Millenium Studios, the first studio to be built in Virginia. Daphne also received a degree in interior design and architecture from Northwestern University.
Roderick Shade
Roderick Shade Design is a New York-based international interior design firm, creating, as Roderick puts it, “design for the real world.” He founded the firm more than a decade ago and quickly began receiving the highest accolades from top shelter publications and has been included on the Top Designers’ lists of Architectural Digest (AD100), House Beautiful, New York Magazine and New York Spaces. Roderick is the co-author of the book Harlem Style and the founder of the Harlem United Showhouse. His work has been widely published and he has created interiors for top celebrities and opinion leaders nationwide. Roderick’s easy going manner, thoughtful inquiry into his clients’ needs, comfortable expertise and deep knowledge of color, pattern, scale and lighting allow him to create interiors that answer his clients’ deepest wishes.
Genell Anderson, AIA, NOMA, ICC
Genell Anderson is the Principal Founder of AMAR Group LLC, a Washington, DC based architectural and design firm. Genell is also author of, The Call of Ancestors, a book on the influence of African architecture on American architecture, which is cleverly demonstrated in her 2014 design for the Regional Addiction Prevention Inc’s (RAP, Inc.) main facility expansion project - the Calvin W. Rolark Treatment Center. In 2006, Genell teamed up with PBS’s iconic home renovation show “This Old House” as the lead project architect for the rehabilitation of a row house in Washington, DC’s Shaw neighborhood.
Dennese Guadelope Rojas, Interior Designer
Owner of Interiors By Design in Silver Spring, MD, Dennese began her career in the design field in 1991, and holds a A.A. in Interior Design from Bauder College in Miami Florida. Although Dennese resides in the Washington Metropolitan area, her projects have taken her from coast to coast and the Caribbean. Her motto is consistent and simple: “Maintain authenticity in style and texture, atmosphere is everything…”
Jack Travis, FAIA, NOMAC
Jack Travis founded his namesake design studio - Jack Travis - in 1985. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Arizona State University in 1977 and then went on to achieve a Masters in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1978. Jack is a highly acclaimed and very respected authority in the field of architecture and design, whose additional in-depth study and knowledge of African architecture, African iconography and African design aesthetics has informed and continues to inform his peers and generations of architectural and design students.
Melvin Mitchell, FAIA, NCARB, NOMA
Melvin Mitchell is CEO of Bryant Mitchell, PLLC (BM), a Washington D.C. firm of architects, planners, construction managers, and real estate developers. He is a former professor at Howard University, former Director/Dean of the School of Architecture & Planning at Morgan State University, and past president of the DC Board of Architecture. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia. Melvin Mitchell is also the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Crisis of the African American Architect; Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and Black Power which is an opening attempt to find what role trained black architects played (or failed to play), the role of the HBCU (historical black colleges universities) architecture programs, and what changes of course are required in the 21st century.
Anthony Williams, General Contractor, Developer, Professor
Anthony received his B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. He brings over 28 years of experience in Branding and Communications design; from 1989 to 1991 he honed his skills at Chermayeff & Geismar Associates, where he was principal designer on signage projects that included the JFK International Airport 2000 Redevelopment Program, the Times Square Redevelopment Project, Tempozan Marketplace in Osaka, Japan and sportifie. com. He’s currently a Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.