Chelsea M. Baldwin
What's the most important thing you are working on right now?
I moved to Las Vegas recently, so the most important thing at the moment is finding the ways that my skill set can best help this amazing community grow to the next level. This involves developing relationships with my students so I know what their perceived needs are, developing relationships with my colleagues so I can support their efforts in the community, and developing relationships with the community outside the school to help steer students towards some of the currently unmet needs of the community.
What have you read, listened to, or watched recently that has influenced you or your work?
Some of my recent readings that keep resurfacing as I think about different problems, include: "A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness" by Nassir Ghaemi, "Boys Adrift" by Leonard Sax, and "Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opioid Epidemic" by Sam Quinones. Two influential titles that continue to influence my work several years later are "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do" by Claude M. Steele and "Talent is Overrated" by Geoffry Colvin.
When students ask you what they should read outside the required textbooks and other law-related books, what do you suggest?
It depends on what the student’s goal is when s/he is seeking recommendations. I have a lengthy list of books that I recommend for improving individual skills and a lengthy list of publications I recommend so students can ensure they are feeding their minds with high quality writing. But my biggest recommendation is to read lots of fiction from authors from many different backgrounds in many different genres about varied and diverse characters. We only have so many hours in the day and corresponding opportunities to learn about people beyond our community, but with fiction we can build our emotional resilience for handling crises and learn compassion and empathy for people different from ourselves who make different choices than we do. In my opinion it is really important to begin this aspect of professional development before we have power over other peoples’ lives as attorneys.