Kelly earned her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of North Carolina but thinks it’s hilarious to say her Ph.D. stands for “professional house and dog sitter.” In 2016, she quit her first academic job, and for the next eight years, she and her husband traveled across the country to care for other people’s pets and homes while she pursued her dream of being an author.
During their housesits, they cared for dogs, cats, goats, ducks, chickens, hamsters, geckos, and fish while working in Alberta, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington. After they fell in love with Boulder, CO, during one of their housesits, Kelly and her husband decided to settle there. She now works as an assistant teaching professor in the Psychology and Neuroscience Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she teaches general psychology and upper-level lab/methods courses in positive psychology, as well as conservation psychology.
Although Kelly does not currently have any animals of her own, she is the godmother to an adorable Westie named Fergus and two incredibly handsome ragdoll cats named Basel and Irving. She still occasionally housesits locally in Colorado and beyond because animals are one of her best sources of inspiration. Please tell your dog she said hi!