Kelly is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences within the Centre for Development, Evaluation, Complexity and Implementation in Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer). Her research focuses on the improvement of the health and well-being of children and young people, particularly increasing physical activity, improving dietary behaviours and improving mental health outcomes.
She is Deputy Director for the School Health Research Network and a member of the Health and Behaviour in School-aged Children | WHO Collaborative Cross-National Study for Wales.
Kelly is passionate about evidence-based practice and is co-investigator of the NIHR funded PHIRST Insight team. Within this role, Kelly works with local authorities to co-produce research on the public health impacts of initiatives, for example leading an evaluation of a growth mindset programme ‘Mindset Teams’ among schools across Scotland.
She is theme lead for Health and Wellbeing in the Cardiff University Strategic Partnership with the Office for National Statistics and leads the Population Level Change theme at the Welsh Institute of Physical Activity, Health and Sport (WIPAHS).
Kelly is an alumni member of the Health and Care Research Wales faculty.
