Kelly Kennedy

Kelly Kennedy served in the United States Army from 1987 to 1993, including tours in the Middle East during Desert Storm, and in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is the managing editor of The War Horse, a nonprofit newsroom for civilians, veterans and servicemembers. She is working on three new books, including a fiction novel with a Gulf War twist. After earning her journalism degree at Colorado State University in 1997, she began her writing career as an education reporter for the Ogden Standard-Examiner in Utah, a criminal justice reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, and a family and education reporter with the Oregonian in Portland. While earning a master's degree in journalism at the University of Colorado, Kennedy taught journalism classes at both her alma mater and the University of Northern Colorado. After completing her master's degree, she worked an internship at The Chicago Tribune before arriving in 2005 at Army Times. She began work as a health policy reporter in 2010 at USA TODAY, where she covered health issues in Desert Storm veterans, as well as health issues associated with burn pits and dust in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, she received an Honorary Mention John B. Oakes award for her reporting on burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Disabled American Veterans' Bugle Award for the burn pit stories and her book, They Fought for Each Other. In 2008, she was named a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award for a series about a unit she embedded with in Iraq. She is also a 2008 Ochberg Fellow, sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma; and a 2008 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Foundation Fellow. She served twice as president of Military Reporters & Editors. In her spare time, she dances ballet and completely loses her military bearing.