Mary Louise Kelly is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, and author with expertise in foreign policy and national security. An anchor and reporter at National Public Radio, Kelly previously served as NPR’s national security, intelligence, and Pentagon correspondent, covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to NPR, Kelly held positions at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Atlantic, CNN, and the BBC.

Kelly is also the author of two novels and a best-selling memoir, It. Goes. So. Fast., about the hard choices inherent in motherhood. A longtime Harvard volunteer, she was the featured speaker at the 2023 Harvard Alumni Day.

Kelly prides herself on her ability as a journalist to ask tough questions to powerful people, which itself made headlines when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly berated her after an interview about Ukraine. She looks forward to bringing that skill to the Board of Overseers. “I would relish the opportunity to put hard questions to Harvard’s leaders, in the service of holding them to account and making our university stronger.”