Growing up in a small business-focused family and small town in Ohio, Kelly learned her work ethic and customer-first style having worked in every role of the family's local clothing store and hotel. She would go on to amass 30 years of sales, marketing, and management experience focused on growing and leading people, cultivating unique cultures, and developing strategic long-term growth plans for a variety of industries, including two startups of her own. She spent a decade with one of the largest commercial roofing companies, where she helped transition the company to an ESOP before leading their sale to Private Equity as the first female CEO in the national roofing industry.

Since she has held various CEO and Board roles in and around the Building Services space, many backed by Private Equity, and led a dozen M&A transactions. Kelly's latest startup is Woman Up Holdings, which includes media, ecommerce, live programming and investments in female founders and female-led companies. She is the author of Why Assume The Position and is currently writing a life guide book for young female millenials and Gen Z, as well as co-authoring a Vietnamese cooking storybook. She is an active investor in female founder startups and leads discussions with female founders on growth, transition and exit strategies. She obtained her MBA at 50 while in a CEO role.

Kelly is the single mom of two young adult sons and an international high altitude trekker, having climbed Kilimanjaro, Whitney, Elbert, Patagonia's Torres Del Paine, the Haute Route, Corsica's GR20, Sleeping Indian in Jackson Hole, Mt Fuji Sea to Summit 2x, Rim2Rim Grand Canyon, Mt Muhabura Rwanda. She also is an avid skier since learning at 50, practices Yoga, French, tennis, reader and all-around adventureholic.