In 2006, Kelly began working as a special educator for the New York City Public Schools and earned her yoga teacher certification. During her time in NYC, Kelly focused on incorporating yoga and mindful awareness techniques into her classroom routines and culture. She saw an increase in stamina and students were focusing and concentrating for longer periods of time. Attendance and engagement levels proved that the students were happy and eager to come to school and their standardized test scores improved. She saw that in order for a child to receive a quality education; social and emotional learning must be integrated into an engaging and challenging academic program. This experience became the foundation for Kelly’s life’s work. 

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Her unique experiences and opportunities include working directly with students, freelancing as a contributing author to social emotional learning and mindful awareness curriculums (SEE Learning and Mission Be), facilitating professional learning, developing SEL/mindful awareness training modules and supporting the implementation process. 

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Kelly lives in Jeffersonville with her family and is a mother of two boys (third and eighth grade). She is committed to a path of conscious parenting and places emphasis on her children's autonomy, nurturing their creativity, requiring their accountability and modeling self-awareness, regulation skills and self-compassion (for when she messes up and forgets to walk the walk). She is a dedicated yoga instructor for her community and loves to partake in outdoor recreation including skiing, hiking, biking, running and sitting by the water’s edge. 

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Kelly is a contributing author to the Emory University’s SEE Learning Curriculum and Mission Be’s Mindfulness Curriculum. Recently, she was selected to present as a panelist at the “SEE Learning: A Worldwide Initiative for Educating the Heart and Mind” hosted by the Dalai Lama Trust and Emory University in Dharamshala, India.