Wayne is a developer, planner, and licensed architect who resides in Lincoln, Nebraska. After initially preparing for a traditional career in architecture at the University of Nebraska, Wayne’s academic interests shifted to the emerging field of public interest design. His subsequent journey took him to DC, St Louis, and Cleveland before coming home in 2020 to explore affordable housing products and policy solutions that transcend the urban/rural divide.

In DC, Wayne oversaw the launch of a national service initiative called Freedom by Design as the ‘03-’04 President of the American Institute of Architecture Students. He subsequently returned to graduate school in 2004 at Washington University in St. Louis where he was the first student to achieve graduate degrees in architecture, urban design, and social work. Upon graduation, he leveraged that knowledge base on the WashU faculty as well as H3 Studio where he served as an urban design associate and outreach specialist for planning and urban design projects across the Midwest and South.

In 2010, he was awarded an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship, which took him to Cleveland, Ohio. For nearly a decade, he helped facilitate citywide planning, housing, and redevelopment strategies as a pro bono consultant within the expansive community development ecosystem. His work there was recognized by the AIA with a 2020 Young Architect Award.

Months later, the Arlington, Nebraska native came home to lead the modernization of NeighborWorks Lincoln, including a team reset, community land trust launch, rental rehab program design, and scaling of the land acquisition and development pipeline. Wayne stepped away from NWL in 2024 to launch Public Square and investigate scaling and production techniques for affordable and mixed-income housing.