Kelsey Zlevor

Kelsey Zlevor is a spatial strategist and design researcher based in Chicago, with a background spanning creative writing, environmental science, and urban planning. As the steward of Mental Landscapes, a pioneering initiative integrating trauma-informed research with park and public space design, Zlevor explores the intersection of planning policy, climate justice, and social change. Through this work, she was named the Fall 2023 Artist-In-Residence at Allerton Park and Retreat Center, and was a speaker at SXSW in 2024.

Zlevor's expertise extends to community facilitation and public space design, with a focus on ancestral land acknowledgment and fostering wellbeing through design lenses like depression. An active member of Women in Planning + Development and the Association for Community Design, Zlevor has held multiple public offices, serving as an appointed at-large commissioner and chair of the City of Eugene Sustainability Commission, and chair of the Eugene Downtown Neighborhood Association. She organized with Sunrise Eugene, and was a founding member of the Holiday Farm Advisory Team, a network of professionals supporting climate-resilient community recovery in light of the wildfires in 2020. Through her work with SquareOne Villages, she advocates for permanently affordable housing solutions, addressing systemic barriers to access.

Zlevor's global engagement includes participation in Unleash Lab, focusing on the UN's sustainable development goals, and fellowships like the Summer Institute on Sustainability and Energy at University of Illinois-Chicago. Her creative spirit also shines through initiatives like Causerie, a monthly newsletter community, and the Strategic Yes for Social Change DIY Retreat Kit, fostering collective learning and action.

Zlevor holds a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. She was a graduate fellow at the Sustainable Cities Institute, the first Sustainability Liaison for UIowa Student Government, and a founding storyteller of the Climate Narrative Project. Before her planning career, she interned in the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.