a bit about me

Hi! I’m Kelly. Looks like you’ve found my portfolio. Welcome!

Let me preface this with the fact that this portfolio is ANCIENT… I think I made it back in 2013. But that is intentional. I like to encourage people getting started in their career to build a portfolio of personal and professional projects. Not only is building a little website a useful skill, it is also helpful to show how you document your work. From the hiring side, seeing someone’s work in this way is 1000x more helpful than a resume. So I keep this up to show people a little snippet of what helped me get jobs in the past. I hope it helps you! 

I made the catchy little tagline:  “engineer with a right brain” as my love of design and the creative parallel my love of science and the technical. My decision to go into mechanical engineering  began from my fascination with the products we interact with and use everyday. I consider skills of design and engineering a superpower, and believe they can have huge impact on the world.

As I began to develop my skills and career, I found myself gravitating toward complex systems and organizations with meaningful missions. Hence – small sats like Brown’s EQUISat and eventually Planet Labs. I spent my three years post grad from Brown working at Planet, designing the Dove spacecraft’s mechanical systems. Then I spent a year building a small rocket with the team at Astra. There I worked on cryogenic systems, structural design, and led the early Upper Stage team. In 2017, I co-founded Charm Industrial with a few friends, and we are working to reverse climate change through novel sequestration methods and the decarbonization of hydrogen and steel production.

Over my last couple of years in the Bay Area, I have lived the often trying life of a female engineer. It’s tricky, and to combat it I have focused a lot on developing inclusive workplaces. Charm is a pretty wonderful example of that, if I do say so myself (but ask my team!). Aside from work, I am extremely passionate about getting children excited about science, learning new things, and creating. You can find my partner and me at the Box Shop in Hunter’s Point building robots like our Dodo!

Some media about me below:

Here’s an article about me in Aerospace America.

Here’s a little something my former colleague, Nametag Scott, wrote about me.

This one’s about the time NASA chose EQUISat for a launch!