Alumni Ventures Group had no L&D function, yet they had employees that were yearning to grow their careers, their skillsets, and their impact. Kelly built the department from scratch, creating the strategy, deploying the tactics, and influencing the key leaders in the organization to drive support for the function, and to help provide career pathways for all.

As part of AWE, Kelly has coached over 150 senior executive women, helping them to find their voice, get their promotion, and lead their companies. All at the VP level or higher, Kelly has helped CXOs, Heads of Divisions, and several “Next-In-Liners” at companies such as Deloitte, Tiffany & Co., Microsoft, Gartner, Docusign, and Memorial Sloan Kettering…just to name a few.

Hearst Corporation was just one of many organizations thrown into the throes of the unknown, come 2020. The pandemic, the political unrest, the racial reckoning, and the overall struggle in this country and around the world led the company to take a pause and better prepare for what was next. Kelly delivered an expert workshop with top leaders about the future of work and the need to calibrate in the face of major change.

An advocate of more humanity at work, Kelly spoke to a large group of high-growth start-up CEOs, all part of the Pavilion Network, on the power of making the hard decisions with humanity as the guide. Layoffs, and other cost-saving measures may be inevitable as our economy becomes more and more strained. But making those decisions in a humane way will protect your reputation, mitigate risk, and spur future growth.

Kelly worked closely with Silverline, before getting platonically married to Salesforce, to upskill their workforce, and to speed up the time between when an employee is hired and when they are truly productive. She created a specialized onboarding program, revamped the new hire experience, trained leaders, and leveled up their consultants. And this, just in time for them to grow into a platinum partner of salesforce.

Always a staunch believer in and supporter of education, Kelly works closely with graduate students at Columbia University’s Group Dynamics class. She helps them integrate their experiences in groups and on teams, ensures they understand how the theory of group behavior translates into practice, and pushes them to learn more, grow more, be curious about more, and apply more mindful group behavior.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), when managed correctly, can spur tremendous opportunity within an organization. ERGs can help provide employees a safe space to share experiences and support each other, and can help the organization with new revenue streams, growth avenues, recruitment prospects, and more. Kelly helped Sharp Electronics stand up a women’s ERG, which has led to incredible engagement and growth for the organization.

Moving from an individual contributor to a people manager is one of the biggest steps in one’s career. And with that transition comes uncertainty, anxiety, and tremendous opportunity. Kelly has partnered with Microsoft to assist this key group of employees as they move through this transition into a new role and a new level of responsibility.

MIT knows, maybe better than most business schools, how important teamwork is. Not just to build a raft or succeed in a ropes course…but inside companies, on executive leadership teams, and when starting a company. Because of this, every MBA student spends their first year as part of a workgroup, and all the work, grades, and deliverables are for the team - not the individual. Kelly partnered with some of these working groups to help them develop their norms, communication styles, and commitments to each other, so they could start - and finish - their program as seamlessly as possible.