Rochelle Grayson is a trilingual, Afro-Puerto Rican entrepreneur, educator, and AI stewardship advocate with over 30 years of experience bridging business, technology, finance, and education. Rochelle believes the most powerful innovations are rooted in ancestral wisdom. As Founder of Mosaic Accelerator and Co-Founder of Circles of AI, she works at the intersection of technology, liberation, and collective care, building pathways for women, gender-diverse, and undervalued leaders to not just use AI, but to shape it on their own terms.
Drawing on Ancestral Intelligence™ – a framework that centres Indigenous, African, and Latin American wisdom traditions as a compass for ethical, regenerative innovation – Rochelle reframes AI as an act of stewardship, not just strategy. Through Mosaic, she has supported 75+ founders from intersectional and undervalued communities, generating $15 in economic value for every $1 invested – proof that when opportunity is equitably distributed, entire economies shift.
Recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and one of Canada’s Top 20 Black Tech Entrepreneurs, Rochelle has mentored 200+ startups and worked across North America, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. She teaches AI application, innovation, and ethics at the University of British Columbia and is the recipient of UBC’s John K. Friesen Excellence in Teaching Award and the Canadian Women in Communications’ Trailblazer: Excellence in Leadership Award. She has also been recognized by Canadian Business Magazine as “The New Executive Cool Hunter” and by Business in Vancouver as one of its Top Forty Under 40.
Rochelle holds an MBA in Finance and Business Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is the author of Foundations in Digital Marketing (BCcampus) and co-author of Applied Marketing (Wiley). She builds with the seventh generation in mind – because the future she is creating is not just for us, but for those who come after.
About Mosaic Accelerator
At Mosaic Accelerator, we believe that building a thriving business and building a better world are not competing goals – they are the same goal. We support intersectional, undervalued women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs with the skills, tools, community, and whole-person support they need to create and grow tech-enabled ventures that generate real economic and social impact.
Our definition of “intersectional” is expansive by design: we welcome women and gender-diverse people straddling at least two identities – including race, culture, disability, LGBTQIA+ experience, neurodivergence, and age. Because entrepreneurship ecosystems have too long excluded the very people whose wisdom, resilience, and lived experience make the most transformative founders.
We go far beyond traditional business coaching. Our programming weaves together an AI operating system for entrepreneurs that spans all major business functions, a network of 60+ mentors (primarily intersectional women and men), and whole-person support services that recognize founders as full human beings – including trauma counselling, vocal coaching, personal style guidance, ritual and ceremonial practice, and money healing. We know that a founder’s inner world and outer strategy are inseparable.
Our funding philosophy is regenerative, community-based, and non-extractive. Through peer lending circles, community-backed micro-loans, and crowdfunding models, we help founders access capital on their own terms. We are not a path to venture capital – we are a path to revenue, because revenue is the most sustainable, non-dilutive funding a founder can have. We build for longevity, not exits. Like our ancestors, we do not build to scale – we build for sustainability.
Mosaic is a community of entrepreneurs who grow with intention, lead with integrity, and innovate for the generations that follow.
Rochelle’s SVI Virtual 2026 Workshop
AI on Our Terms: Values-Based Strategies for Social Movement Leaders
AI isn’t neutral – and that’s exactly why social movements need to be in the room where it’s designed.
In this participatory 90-minute workshop, AI stewardship advocate and Mosaic Accelerator founder Rochelle Grayson invites mission-driven entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, community organizers, and anyone building movements with purpose – especially women, Indigenous, and gender-diverse leaders – to move beyond fear and hype and into a grounded, values-aligned relationship with artificial intelligence. No technical background required – just your lived experience, your values, and your vision.
Drawing on her Ancestral Intelligence™ framework – which centres Indigenous, African, and Latin American wisdom as a guide for ethical technology – Rochelle explores what it means to practice Sovereign AI: the right of communities, movements, and peoples to govern how AI is used on their behalf, in alignment with their values, data, and futures. This is especially vital for environmentalist, Indigenous, and social movement communities who are asking hard questions about technology’s role in their work and who deserve to know that values-aligned, community-governed alternatives to dominant AI systems already exist and are within reach.
This session is participatory by design. Rooted in peer learning, lived experience, and collective wisdom – the same values that have always powered movements – you will be invited to reflect, share, and build together, not simply receive.
You will leave with:
- Practical, values-based AI strategies you can implement immediately in your organization or movement – no coding or technical expertise required
- A working understanding of Sovereign AI and why it matters for communities navigating technology on their own terms
- Clarity on your own AI “edge” – the unique perspective and wisdom you bring to shaping how technology serves your community
- Connection with a community of fellow leaders navigating the same terrain
Because the most powerful algorithms aren’t built in Silicon Valley – they’re built in community!