Kelley is an adventure guide, explorer, and novice-filmmaker who paved the way for women to become guides in the adventure travel industry. Today, paralyzed from the waist down after ingesting a waterborne parasite on the first descent of the Blue Nile River, Kelley continues to illustrate the need for courage to make the world better.
Her experiences include:
- Trainer for third-world locals who continue to earn living wages for their families as guides on their native rivers
- Guide on historic journeys that retraced the steps of great explorers such as John Muir's expedition through Alaska and Teddy Roosevelt's wilderness river descent through the rain forests of Brazil
- Stunt woman for Meryl Streep in the movie "The River Wild"
- Award-winning documentary film maker for the movie "Three Women, 300 Miles," which chronicled her river-board (similar to large boogie-board) trip through the Grand Canyon.
Kelley inspires listeners to live in the moment, embracing and not shying from fear. She uses her spinal cord injury to support all people in their pursuit of living the life they dream.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)