When 15-year-old Amelia Culotta stepped into the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, her whole world transformed.
Walking through the airport’s 400-foot display of Atlanta’s role in the civil rights movement and African American culture, she saw her history reflected back at her for the first time.
“There was more history on one wall than I’ve ever had in school,” Amelia said. “Like, ever.”
Growing up in Green Bay, she was used to being one of the only Black girls in her grade and had never visited a city like Atlanta. Seeing the racial diversity among people living there was a culture shock in the best way.
“Before then, I just felt like, ‘Oh, this is how everything goes, my small world is how all the rest of the world is,’” Amelia said. “It didn’t feel real when I was walking off the airplane because I didn’t realize how much life I haven’t seen, and I was missing.”
Moments like these are why Rhonda Chandler created Lovin’ the Skin I’m In, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering girls of color in northeast Wisconsin by giving them experiences like Amelia’s.
Small group meetings grow into nonprofit
When Chandler moved to De Pere with her husband more than a decade ago, they were the first Black family in their neighborhood. For her three kids, transitioning from Charlotte, North Carolina, to a school district with less than 2% Black enrollment wasn’t easy.
“When we sent our children off to school, that’s when they started having a lot of challenges … It started with name calling, all of the things, microaggressions, etc.,” Chandler said. “My oldest daughter … really had a hard time struggling to fit in, finding her people, being accepted.”
Chandler knew something had to change a few years later when her youngest daughter started experiencing the same bullying and microaggressions.
“I vowed I was going to do something different,” Chandler said. “I was not going to have the same pattern repeated that my older daughter had, so I kind of went into action mode.”
At first, she started inviting other Black families who shared her daughter’s experiences to her home for monthly meetings in her basement. In 2020, Lovin’ the Skin I’m In was officially established as a nonprofit, motivated by nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
“During George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murder is when it was kind of like an ‘aha’ moment for me, and I was like, this is bigger than just my girls, or just keeping it in my basement,” Chandler said.
A 2014 report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranked Wisconsin as the worst state in which to raise African American children based on test scores, employment and poverty rates. Not much has since changed. In 2026, Wisconsin ranked 8th overall for child well-being, but had the worst racial disparities for Black and white children in the country for metrics like children living in high-poverty areas or not graduating on time.
And the school district Chandler lives in – De Pere – still enrolls less than 2% Black students a decade later, according to data from the state Department of Public Instruction.
Having been a social worker for about 30 years, Chandler strives to provide a welcoming environment that girls may not feel at school.
Lovin’ the Skin I’m In now runs regular meetings during the school year at local elementary, middle and high schools, providing peer support and cultural education. Guest speakers have taught students about hair care, career development and mental health, and field trips include going to see DRUMLine Live, based on the marching band tradition at historically Black colleges and universities.
The Women’s Fund of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation awarded Chandler the 2026 Nancy Armbrust Impact Award for her service to over 700 community members in northeast Wisconsin, and her organization continues to grow. Last month, Lovin’ the Skin I’m In launched a weeklong summer camp for elementary and middle school students called the Summer of She. Students learned sailing with Green Bay Sail & Paddle or entrepreneurship at a local Black-owned business, developing new skills and building community.
Having outgrown Chandler’s basement, families meet monthly at Life Church in De Pere. She said the group doesn’t shy away from hard topics in their discussions.
“We have hard conversations, so sometimes that can be challenging … We talk about how the issues with immigration may affect our families, or what’s happening at school, or the political climate, and the mistreatment in our community and in our world,” Chandler said. “We talk about those things because it’s life and it’s going to affect our family.”
‘They don’t have to limit themselves’
Prior to her trip to Atlanta, Amelia had been participating in these support groups since elementary school. Now a rising sophomore at De Pere High School and a member of the school’s Black Student Union, she’s seen the program grow up with her in the years since Chandler started it.
“What we were talking about was just learning about self-confidence and being a part of a (predominantly white institution) … I’ve learned that being an African American girl in Wisconsin isn’t easy,” she said, “but it also gives me the voice to teach and to also learn.”
Her trip to Georgia in March was part of Lovin’ the Skin I’m In’s second annual cohort introducing a group of a dozen high schoolers to HBCUs such as Clark Atlanta University, Fort Valley State University and Spelman College.
“It was so shocking, just stepping into the airport, the difference in the community … I was like, oh my gosh, I’m in a whole different world,” Amelia said. “And I feel safe for the first time in a long time.”
As a graduate of Clark Atlanta herself, Chandler facilitated visits with Black sororities and plans to continue working with seniors on college applications, letters of recommendation and scholarships.
“Some of our girls had never been on an airplane before, haven’t been out of state, any of that,” Chandler said. “So giving them that opportunity and … them being able to go and see those universities where there’s representation and know that they don’t have to limit themselves – they can go to school out of state.”
The trip was an eye-opening moment that empowered Amelia to keep speaking out against institutional racism. Seeing historical exhibits like the one in Atlanta made her even more aware of the flaws in the education system.
“I think people struggle understanding things because they aren’t taught things, and the problem isn’t because of them, the problem is because of what they’ve been taught … I sit with the remarks and the hate every single day,” Amelia said, “and being a part of Lovin’ the Skin was good because it taught me how to deal with that.”
Amelia also hopes to continue the legacy of Chandler’s daughter, who was the president of De Pere’s Black Student Union. She wants to help organize an assembly with guest speakers that would teach students about the impact of racism.
“Do people know what racism is? Not really,” Amelia said. “They know the word. It just sticks out – it’s like a big bad word – but no one really knows what it’s associated to, where it came from, how it impacts people of color. That was never taught.”
Learn more
Lovin’ the Skin I’m In hosts culturally specific training for “professionals, educators and community members” interested in “better serving Black and Brown girls,” according to its website. Visit lovinmyskinwi.com to fill out an inquiry form.
Families can enroll their children in programming at lovinmyskinwi.com/enroll/
Donate to Lovin’ the Skin I’m In online here.
This story is part of Community at Work, an ongoing feature series focused on community organizations that make a difference in northeast Wisconsin. Who should we feature next? Email jzvandenhouten@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
