is a humanitarian aid worker with nearly two decades of experience across government, philanthropy, the United Nations, and national and international NGOs. Her work focuses on violence against women and girls in humanitarian settings, feminist funding, locally led response, program strategy, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning. She has worked in more than 30 countries, including Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Somalia, and Ukraine.

As Founder and Co-Fund Facilitator of La Sœur Fund, Kelly is working to mobilize flexible, trust-based funding for women-led grassroots organizations addressing violence against women and girls in conflict, displacement, disaster, and other fragile settings. Her experience has given her a systems-wide understanding of how humanitarian and philanthropic funding flows, where conventional funding models break down, and how risk and administrative burdens are too often transferred onto local women-led organizations. Through La Sœur Fund, she is helping shift resources and decision-making power to the women and organizations closest to their communities and to survivors.

Previously, Kelly served as Senior Gender-Based Violence Subject Matter Expert and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Lead at the U.S. Department of State’s Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. She has also held senior leadership and advisory roles with organizations including VOICE, HIAS, and UN agencies, designing and leading initiatives to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in crisis-affected settings.

Kelly holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She is also the speaker behind the TEDxLausanneWomen talk, Why the Story of Violence Against Women Needs a Re-write, which has received more than one million views.