Kelly is an archaeobotanist with interests in food systems, agricultural development, cultural adaptations to environmental change and global sustainability. Her work focuses predominantly on the reconstruction of past diet and subsistence strategies in the Balkans from the Neolithic to the Late Middle Ages (6000 BC – 16th Century AD). She is particularly interested in exploring how archaeology and anthropology can help inform current food systems issues, especially as they are tools well-suited to investigating food security and agricultural development over different time frames and under different challenges. She completed her PhD at the University of Leicester in 2012 examining the transformation of agriculture from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin.