Kaede Polkinghorne is thinking about the Gulf South, embodied labor, and participatory public sector planning processes at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Before returning to school, Kaede worked as a designer at landscape architecture and urban design offices in Houston and New Orleans, and most recently served as a planner with the New Orleans City Planning Commission. Kaede holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design from the University of Houston.