Milan was born in Seattle (Washington), grew up in South Berkeley (California), was raised in Waco (Texas), and has lived in East/North Oakland (The Town). He calls each of these places “HOME” as they are the sources where he's learned the definition of service to the community.

As a non-traditional student-parent at UC Berkeley (UCB), Milan majored in Social Welfare with an emphasis on Education. While at UCB, Milan was a member of programs like Mellon Mays Fellows, Underground Scholars, and co-designed UCB’s first-ever "Black Men’s Collective (BMC)." 

Milan’s journey has spanned everywhere from parental support, student advocacy, curriculum design, and program design, to co-teaching and co-designing courses like ”Print on Purpose” and “Needfinding for Activists” at the Hasso Plattner Design Institute, also known as “the d.school (Stanford University).” 

Milan has over 25 years of experience working as an academic activist who focuses on education and the impacts of race/racism on the effectiveness of education. Milan is currently the Community Design Lead at Stanford's d.school and a first-year Ph.D. student. All the while, Milan continues to focus on community-centered design and Black Thought as a design pedagogy to sustain and maintain communities and make (in)VISIBLE Designers truly VISIBLE!