Kelly is a native Floridian whose passion for ecology and the outdoors began early in life. She developed a deep appreciation for Florida’s unique ecosystems while accompanying her mother, a botany professor, on field trips to natural areas, and through canoeing, hiking, and camping with family and friends.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Florida in 2013 and soon after headed west to accept an internship with the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management program. Based out of the Bureau of Land Management’s Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming, Kelly spent a field season collecting native seed for the Seeds of Success (SOS) Program across the Northwestern Great Plains. Though brief, the experience was transformative and sparked a lasting passion for land management and plant conservation.

After returning to Florida, Kelly worked in cooperative extension while completing a Master of Science in Agronomy at the University of Florida. As a horticulturist at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida, she helped build ex-situ collections of rare and endangered plants—with a focus on Magnoliaceae taxa—through collaborations with universities, arboreta, and botanic gardens.

In 2023, Kelly came full circle a decade later, rejoining the SOS Program as Native Seed Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Now based in the Washington, D.C. area, she coordinates wildland native seed collection under the SOS program for USFWS as part of the National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration implementation.