Biography

Kelly received her B.S. in Biology in 2013 from the University of North Carolina with minors in Marine Science and Chemistry and her Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara in 2021.  Kelly's postdoctoral research addressed how top-down and bottom-up forcing impact coral recruitment dynamics and the resilience of coral communities. She is now a NSF Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University.

Research Area

Kelly examined the effects of anthropogenic stressors on coral recruitment and juvenile coral survival. She is studying how processes such as herbivory, predation, nutrient pollution, and sedimentation affect the success of coral settlement and the dynamics of coral recruitment and resilience.