Kelli has over 28 years of experience in the aviation industry in emergency response, business continuity, accident investigation, accident prevention, regulatory compliance, and engineering. Most recently Kelli was the Senior Manager Emergency Response and Humanitarian Assistance for United Airlines. During her time there and at Virgin America and Hawaiian Airlines, Kelli developed Emergency Response and Business Continuity Plans, assembled, trained, and led corporate, humanitarian, and accident investigation response teams to ensure the airlines were prepared to respond to emergencies. She has also developed Emergency Response Plans and provided training for private jet and corporate operators as well as space companies.

Kelli has responded to a number of aviation-related events including, the Asiana accident at SFO, mass shootings, hurricanes, turbulence accidents, employee fatalities, and a pandemic. She has also been an instructor at the NTSB Academy.

Kelli was instrumental in establishing the first Airport and Airline Emergency Working Groups which changed the industry paradigm for the initial hours of response. She authored the first Emergency Working Group Planning Guide for airports and airlines. Kelli has a passion for teamwork and collaboration and her motto has always been “Together we are better prepared.”

Kelli co-authored “The Skies Are Not Always So Friendly: 10 emergency response lessons we can learn from commercial aviation” published in Facilities Manager magazine and was a founding board member of AERO, the Aviation Emergency Response Organization. She is currently based out of Northern California and the Midwest. She has a Masters in Emergency Management and Homeland Security from Arkansas Tech and a Bachelors in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University.