Kelly provides strategic and capacity-building support to philanthropists, advocates and education leaders, specializing in the design of coherent, equity-centered strategies that drive systemic improvement and advance opportunity for students. Her work is guided by a longstanding commitment to educational equity that began with her legal research into the constitutional rights of students and a focus on how systems can better serve Black students with learning differences.

At Education First, Kelly leads major philanthropic learning networks and collaboratives that strengthen the field’s capacity to invest with impact. She supports a group of California funders focused on improving outcomes for emerging bilingual learners; facilitates the Place-Based Funders Learning Network and Literacy Funder Collaborative to align investments; and designs the firm’s Funder Dialogue Series. She also co-founded and helps lead the Peer Learning Collective, a national cohort model that supports nonprofit leaders in navigating policy shifts through scenario planning and collaborative learning.

Kelly’s career has spanned philanthropy, law, and community leadership—including roles at the Raikes and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, Karr Tuttle Campbell, Chicago SCORES, and the Steans Family Foundation. She earned her undergraduate degree at the College of Wooster and her J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School.