Prior to joining Cornerstone, Kelly concluded her tenure with the Illinois General Assembly, where she served from 2011 to 2025. Prior to that, she practiced family, municipal and insurance defense law. She previously held a staff role at Saint Xavier University in Chicago and served as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University School of Law from 2016 to 2021.

During Kelly’s time in the Illinois General Assembly, she held the position of Assistant Majority Leader under both Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and former Speaker Michael Madigan. She chaired the House Revenue and Finance Committee, as well as the Higher Education Appropriations Committee and served as a member of the House Budget Working Group and the Legislative Ethics Commission. Her legislative work focused extensively on higher education, health care and pension reform, with landmark efforts in areas such as ethics, telecommunications and family law.

Kelly is also a founding member of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus. She was named a 2012 Edgar Fellow, a prestigious leadership program led by former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar that brings together leaders from across the state and political spectrum to address Illinois’s most pressing challenges.

In addition to her longstanding dedication to residents across Illinois, Kelly serves her community as Mayor of Evergreen Park, a village of 20,000 residents outside Chicago. Before becoming Mayor, she acted as a village trustee and a library board trustee. Additionally, she serves as the State Central Committeewoman for the 6th Congressional District for the Democratic Party of Illinois and was a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Kelly received a Juris Doctorate from the John Marshall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She currently resides in Evergreen Park, Illinois.