With 18 years of experience in public relations, marketing, and storytelling, Kelly makes complex information accessible, rallies team members and high-level leadership toward a shared strategic vision, and sees challenging projects to completion.
She joins Cooksey after serving as Vice President of Communications at the Dallas Regional Chamber. She oversaw the DRC’s multiple newsletters and developed editorial content around the DRC’s four strategic pillars: economic development, education and workforce, inclusion and community engagement, and public policy.
Her strengths are her work ethic, sense of humor and finding the human-interest story in everything she does. She was a sports reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Shreveport Times and Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Her favorite things to cover were hockey, golf and high school football. In fact, she covered current Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in high school in Haughton, La.
Once she left her 10-year journalism career, she moved back to Texas, working at Ursuline Academy of Dallas and then at another full-service public relations agency in Dallas, where her clients included engineering giant AECOM and Capital One. She worked specifically on Capital One’s Impact Initiative, which focused on the company’s mission to change banking for good and improve racial equity, affordable housing, small business support, workforce development and financial well-being.
Kelly is actively involved in her community, working with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She’s a longtime participant in its Mentor 2.0 Program, a transformative one-to-one support system for low-income high school students, and she volunteers for Rainbow Days, a Dallas-based nonprofit that helps youth in adversity build coping skills to create positive futures. She is also a member of the Dallas Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Kelly received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from TCU, so her Bob Schieffer bobblehead is a prized possession.
What inspires you?
My family, calls with my cousins and a cold brew on a beautiful fall day. My best writing always happens after a caffeine boost.
What are your favorite hobbies?
I’m still very much a sports junkie. Love tailgating at TCU football games, and I’ve been a Dallas Stars fan since I was 12.
What can’t you do without?
My dogs. Winnie, a rescue pit mix, just joined my first fur baby, Jessie, whom I’ve had for 15 years.
What’s the best advice anyone has given you?
I like telling the unique stories of my clients. No client is the same, and it’s important to get at the heart of each one. Humanizing clients’ good work is always the fun part.
