Mary Kelly

Mentor

Biography

Mary gained a love for the natural world at a young age while growing up in southeast Michigan. While in college studying Environmental Science and French at Northern Michigan University, Mary joined the CDL. As a CDL member, she compared spatial distributions of late-successional forests in coastal Oregon from pre-European settlement to present-day, integrating LANDFIRE data into GIS and R.

After graduating from NMU, Mary earned a master’s degree in geospatial data sciences from the University of Michigan, where she served as a graduate student instructor in GIS. Her graduate research focused on developing GIS tools to enable Native Nations in the Northern Great Plains to prioritize lands for restoration and enhance wildlife connectivity.

Recently, Mary began work as an Environmental Protection Specialist with the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center, where she provides GIS and other technical support for NEPA compliance projects.

In her free time, Mary enjoys running, biking, climbing, reading, and crochet.