After a challenge from Bernice King to get intimate despite our differences and to “go to each other’s homes, have dinner!” following the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, Tina L. Singleton founded Transformation Table in November 2016. Tina creates space at the dinner table among strangers of different backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences to come together to see, hear and understand each other - to find those little points of connection that allows us to see each other’s humanity.

Upon reflection during COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent global Black Lives Matters protests, Tina is restructuring Transformation Table into a nonprofit organization, to support other cities who want to establish Transformation Table in their own communities to use a tool for social change. She is also exploring new opportunities in the culinary diplomacy field - the use of food and cuisine as an instrument to create cross-cultural understanding in the hopes of improving interactions and cooperation.

Tina and Transformation Table have been featured in publications including
Organic Life Magazine, The Post and Courier, Edible Charleston Magazine, and Tableaux Magazine. She was named an Everyday Hero by Channel 2 Charleston and spoke about the power of strangers eating together at the dinner table through TEDx Charleston. Awards include the Peace and Dialogue Award from the Atlantic Institute and the Spot Light Award Servant Leadership Recognition, in honor of Susie Jackson, one of the Charleston community members killed during the Mother Emanuel Church mass shooting.

Tina is currently based in Charleston with one foot abroad where she can get lost in unfamiliar cities and eat, eat, eat.