Chelsea Wait grew up in a small, rural town in Indiana. She spent a lot of time exploring the outdoors as a girl, including the 70 acres of forest surrounding her childhood home. Such environmental habitats, with their many creatures and life forms, are where she discovered a certain independence. And it’s where her heart lies, she says, telling us that she wants political leaders who care deeply about the Earth. It should come as no surprise that Chelsea’s desire to understand can be productive in other landscapes as well, including Milwaukee. As an adjunct professor and a doctoral candidate at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her research is focused on the racialization of the urban landscape, the ways in which we read skin color into buildings, streets and sidewalks even when people aren’t present. Her hope is to help Milwaukeeans undo such interlinked readings of the world, the ways in which we see race and crime connected, for instance. These assumptions impact how we as Milwaukeeans stick to our zones and how we frame our thinking about education, economics and health as well. Chelsea also teaches multiculturalism to college students, exploring ideas about race that are 150 years old, false and lingering in today’s 18-year-old students.