Overview

Dr. Reese Kelly is an award-winning sociologist, consultant, researcher, educator, and published scholar on the topics of queer and trans identities and structural inequities. He is the CEO and founder of Embodied Values, a business that helps individuals, communities, and organizations heal and transform in order to be better aligned with their core values. As a faculty member turned student affairs leader, he has over 20 years of experience in higher education and DEIB work, having worked at Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Michigan, the University of Vermont, and most recently as the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, Equity and Inclusion at Champlain College, which included his role as the Title IX and Bias Response Coordinator.

A white, queer, neurotypical, trans man, Dr. Kelly is particularly attuned to the impact that institutions and norms have on the agency and well-being of individuals and communities. He has leveraged his expertise in service to community in the past as a founding member and patient advocate for the Trans Healthcare Pathway project for the Department of Gynecology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, lead organizer for the anti-racist community organization Neighbors for a Safer Saint Albans (Saint Albans, VT), co-chair of the National Women’s Studies Association Trans/Gender Variant Caucus, and member of the Board of Directors the Pride Center of the Capitol Region (Albany, NY), and currently as a member of the Board of Directors of Outright Vermont and a member of the Belonging, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the City of St. Albans.

Dr. Kelly was born and raised in the middle-class suburbs outside of Detroit, MI. He is the product of public K-12 education, a graduate of Colby College, and holds a masters and doctorate in Sociology from the State University of New York at Albany. He is a certified Restorative Justice Facilitator, certified Social and Emotional Learning Facilitator, certified yoga and meditation instructor, and graduate of Harvard Institute of Education’s Management Development Program.