Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Applied Physiology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015
  • B.S., Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009
Academic Appointments
  • Visiting Professor, Georgia State University, 2015
  • Program Instructor, Anatomy, Physiology, and Medical Ethics, Duke TIP, 2015
Professional Honors
  • NIH Fellow for Prosthetics and Orthotics Research Training, 2012-2015
  • Georgia Institute of Technology Presidential Scholarship, 2010-2014
  • Georgia Tech (GTRIC) Travel Award, 2011
Professional Affiliations
  • Digital Medicine Society (DiME)
  • Consumer Technology Association (CTA)
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
  • American Psychological Association (APA)

Dr. Rachel Kelly specializes in work related to cognition, perception, and behavior as it relates to human factors. She applies her expertise to the development and evaluation of warning and safety information, behavioral response to risk communication and/or product design, driver behavior, training, attention and distraction, visibility, decision-making, and human motor control.

Leveraging her background in physiology and cognitive neuroscience, Dr. Kelly applies her expertise to understand human factors issues in diverse contexts. These include the analysis of a variety of accidents and injuries involving motor vehicles and pedestrians, industrial machinery and equipment, occupational accidents, consumer and medical device products, and slip-and-fall accidents. Dr. Kelly also regularly evaluates the adequacy of industrial and consumer product labels, warnings, instructions, safety information, and other forms of communication and has experience evaluating compliance with industry standards.

Dr. Kelly also capitalizes on her more than 12 years of experience as a researcher, specializing in the design, execution, and analysis of human subject studies, focus groups, and surveys. She has conducted domestic and international usability studies and surveys for consumer products and technology, analyzing how users interact with and use products in a range of environments and scenarios. The purpose of these studies is to understand these interactions in terms of human capabilities and limitations, as well as their implication on product design and risk communication. 

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Kelly was a Graduate Research Assistant in the Cognitive Motor Control Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology where she completed a National Institutes of Health Fellowship for Prosthetics and Orthotics Research Training. Her research evaluated the neurophysiology behind the motor planning process of movement in humans. Specifically, her focus was on deepening our understanding of the interaction between cognitive and motor systems for the performance of skillful motor tasks, and how factors such as handedness influence these interactions. Dr. Kelly also was appointed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Georgia Tech for courses in Human Performance Science and as a program instructor for the Duke Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP). After graduate school, Dr. Kelly was a member of the Georgia State University faculty where she taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses in cognitive neuroscience, neuroendocrine and endocrine systems, anatomy and physiology, drugs and behavior, and medical ethics.