Dr. Kelly is the Director of Professional Studies and Program Curriculum Chair.  She is an associate professor and has been a full-time faculty member in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Kentucky since 1988. Prior to that she had taught part time for the program since 1984. She received a BS in Psychology from Drake University, a Certificate in Physical Therapy from Northwestern University, an MS in Education from the University of Kentucky and a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Arcadia University.

Her clinical experiences have included patient care and administrative duties in acute care, outpatient, home health, school systems, and skilled nursing settings with a focus on hand rehabilitation, burn care, lymphedema management and wound care.

Research / Scholarship

• Prediction and diagnosis of swelling, lymphedema, tissue fibrosis
• Lymphedema management
• Development of multimedia CD-ROM tools to enhance learning
• Cancer Rehabilitation
• Exam Item Writing

Educational Focus

• Foundational Skills
• Basic Clinical Skills
• Orthotics
• Pathology & Clinical Applications of selected disorders
• Management of Vascular and Integumentary Disorders
• Advanced Manual Interventions (Manual Lymphatic Drainage)
• College of Medicine: Patient Centered Medicine

Clinical Work

Dr. Kelly is certified in Complete Decongestive Therapy and treats patients through the Kentucky Clinic Lymphedema Team. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Lymphedema Association of North America where she is Qualifications Committee Chair and is on the Item Writing Committee for the national exam. She currently focuses her clinical work on those individuals with wounds, Lymphedema or other edemas and diagnoses that benefit from treatment utilizing Manual Lymphatic Drainage.