Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Applied Physiology, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), 2015
  • B.S., Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), 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
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
  • Society for Neuroscience
  • Society of Cognitive Neuroscience
  • American Psychological Association

Dr. Rachel Kelly's focus is primarily on physiological, cognitive, and perceptual issues relating to human behavior. Her areas of expertise include human cognition involving attention and distraction, driver behavior, training, and behavioral response to risk communication. 

Dr. Kelly's work experience and skillset enable her to understand human behavior in a range of accident contexts involving motor vehicles, recreational activities and equipment, pedestrians, occupational accidents, and slip-and-fall accidents. She also analyzes human factors and human performance issues in a wide range of contexts including safety information and use of consumer products.

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 National Institutes of Health Fellowship for Prosthetics and Orthotics Research Training. Her dissertation work evaluated the neurophysiology behind the motor planning process of movement in humans. Specifically, her focus was on developing improved models of the interaction of cognitive and motor systems for performance of skillful motor tasks, and how handedness influences cortical localization of neural networks. Dr. Kelly also served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Georgia Tech for courses in Human Performance Science. After graduate school, Dr. Kelly accepted academic appointments at Georgia State University and Duke TIP where she taught courses in cognitive neuroscience, neuroendocrine and endocrine mechanisms, anatomy and physiology, drugs and behavior, and medical ethics.