Kristy Kelly is a clinical professor in the Department of Educational Psychology who serves as the department’s director of clinical training and co-chair of the School Psychology program. In her roles, Kelly has facilitated high-quality graduate training for both doctoral and educational specialist students. Her work has not only supported the rapid growth and success of our school psychology program, but ensured the highest quality training of future school psychologists and clinicians at a time when they are sorely needed in Wisconsin and around the country.
In her role as co-director of the School Psychology Training Clinic, Kelly worked to expand clinic services into the summer term. This expansion enabled the clinic to provide additional assessment and intervention support to youth and families in the community, as well as provide educational specialist students an additional practicum opportunity within their relatively accelerated training timeline.
Her nominators note Kelly also “single-handedly” recruited additional school psychologists to supervise students during practicum hours — a challenging task when qualified individuals are in short supply. Her recruitments enabled a 169% increase in practicum placements for our students since the launch of the educational specialist school psychology program. She also works tirelessly to ensure practicum and internship experiences are beneficial and supportive to students and placement sites alike, balancing a range of dynamic needs.
In the words of the Department of Educational Psychology’s Faculty Awards Committee: “Simply stated, the state of Wisconsin and the nation will employ more school psychologists because of her tireless work.”
For these reasons and many more, we are proud to award Kristy Kelly the Ann Wallace Academic Staff Distinguished Achievement Award.
Read the full article at: https://education.wisc.edu/about/faculty-staff-awards/2026-faculty-and-staff-award-winners/#ann-wallace-staff-2