Kelly Mella, a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, has focused her professional life on communication for the public good. As Teaching Faculty in the Department of Life Sciences Communication, she helps undergraduate and graduate students learn how to write about science for both other scientists and the public, and directs one of LSC’s courses that fulfills a campus-wide communication requirement.
Mella earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees from LSC (the former when the department was named Agricultural Journalism) and her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with a certificate in Environmental Studies from the Nelson Institute, while teaching at Madison College and the UW. She also worked for over a decade as a communications professional for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Madison-Dane County Public Health Department, and other science-based organizations before joining the faculty of Edgewood University in 2006. At Edgewood, Mella taught courses in social marketing, media writing, and intercultural communication, and conducted community-based research and social marketing projects about public health and the environment in diverse communities. She became chair of the Communications Studies Department in 2010, helped develop a minor in science communication and a master’s program in sustainability, and won the college’s award for excellence in multicultural education.
After 14 years at Edgewood, she got the itch to return to active communication practice and became Communication Director for the Department of Surgery at UW-Madison. She then served as a public information officer for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, where she finally met a bunch of other people with Ag Journalism degrees! She is now thrilled to be back in her academic home, helping tomorrow’s science communicators prepare to meet the challenges of this endlessly fascinating field.