Email Sarah to receive contact information for her colleagues who wrote the below recommendations. The recommendations are organized by position.

Graduate Teaching Assistant; STEAM Education & Research Assistant; Discovery Trail Coordinator

“I am fortunate to have worked with Sarah Kelly for the last 1.5 years as both a very involved member of her graduate committee and co-lead on the Discovery Trail Learning Experience project, in which she has played an essential role. I know I can always count on her. I find myself writing these, “you are awesome,” emails to her on a regular basis because of the consistent high quality of her work. Sarah is highly motivated and works hard. She is thorough, very organized, great at follow through, and she is an excellent problem solver. I am wowed by her initiative on a regular basis.

For her graduate project and on a volunteer basis, Sarah has been coordinating the Discovery Trail Learning Experience for the Andrews LTER program. It is a very collaborative project; it involves working with multiple leads on the project, a contractor, teachers and students, and the computing services group in the College of Forestry. She has done an excellent job of communicating with all involved and keeping the many pieces and parts of the project moving.

Sarah is a great communicator and a great “people” person. She knows how to communicate in a thoughtful, organized, clear way with the audience in mind. She is a good writer and gives great presentations. For the panel of scientists and NSF program officers for the Andrews LTER mid-term review, she put together a well-organized, clear, confident, well-timed presentation. Also, I observed her interacting with middle and high school students for the Discovery Trail Learning Experience, and she has great rapport with kids. Last but not least, she is generally a very enjoyable person to be around – warm, and easy to talk to.

Sarah has gained some great scholarly skills and knowledge while here at OSU. She has far-reaching familiarity with environmental humanities and education literature, ranging from qualitative methods and curriculum design to environmental ethics and environmental history. She has conducted semi-structured interviews, helped put documents together for IRB approval, and used content analysis methods for analyzing and interpreting qualitative data.

If you can get Sarah on your team, you’re the lucky one! I would be beyond enthusiastic to work with her again if I get the chance. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions about Sarah Kelly.” (March 3, 2018)

– Kari O’Connell, Senior Researcher, Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning

UH Sustainability Manager 

“I had the great pleasure of working with Ms. Kelly while she served as the Sustainability Manager at the University of Houston. In her tenure in the Office of Sustainability, she helped transform a fledging institution into a real and contributing institution for the university and beyond. Under Sarah’s guidance, the role and importance of environmental issues at UH, such as recycling, energy usage, and local food systems gained much greater status and visibility. Her management skills were readily evident in the quality of programs that she supervised, such as the annual Sustainability Fest and in the work of the dedicated students who worked for her. I also had an opportunity to work with Ms. Kelly on a novel project to bring a historic landscape back to the University of Houston campus.

Ms. Kelly saw a chance to bring back a patch of prairie to the UH campus for the benefit of students, undergraduate researchers, and as a way of promoting more sustainable landscaping on campus. Thus the idea of the Shasta’s Pocket Prairie was born. Sarah led the charge to fundraise for this project, helping raise over $7,000 in just over two months. She organized a multi-departmental team to help establish and maintain the prairie. Ms. Kelly also engaged the university’s public relations team to help tell the story of the pocket prairie. This led to an effective accompanying video and newspaper article. From start to finish, Sarah demonstrated masterful leadership, organization, and communication skills. Today the Shasta’s Pocket Prairie is a point of pride for the university, the Biology Department, and the Office of Sustainability. It has also sparked other universities to plant their own native landscapes on their campuses and will soon be expanded to accommodate more students.” (January 20, 2018)

– Jaime Gonzalez,  Houston Urban Conservation Programs Manager for The Nature Conservancy, North American Association for Environmental Education Board Member (Former Community Conservation Director, Katy Prairie Conservancy)

“Words fall short to describe the respect, admiration and appreciation I have for Sarah Minette Kelly. I first met Sarah when I worked under her as the communications assistant for the University of Houston Office of Sustainability. I was immediately in awe of the paradox that is Sarah. As  sustainability manager, she ran a tight ship but created an environment that was both relaxed and demanding. She encouraged others to push their boundaries but also created a safe place where everyone could be themselves.

One of the skills I most admired in Sarah was her ability to fuse her creative talents in writing, design and event planning with her vast knowledge of the sustainability field to create successful initiatives. In 2015, Sarah spearheaded the launch of monthly campus sustainability meetups that ranged from waste management and recycling panels to guacamole-making competitions designed to teach attendees about food waste. Sarah also coordinated the University of Houston’s largest annual zero-waste festival, Sustainability Fest, which aimed to educate students, staff and the community of the Greater Houston area on the latest developments in sustainability through exhibitors and hands-on activities.

Although her accomplishments as sustainability manager are notable, the most unique trait that Sarah brought to the table was her management style. Her team consisted of student workers, and she made everyone feel that they had a voice. Sarah gave student employees the opportunity to run with their own ideas and initiatives with her guidance and oversight. She served as a mentor for each and every one of us, and her ability to bring us all together created a tight-knit and  subsequently productive department. Most importantly, Sarah truly cared about the well-being of her team.

Now a working professional in the environmental field myself, I am eternally grateful for the training and support I received from Sarah throughout my undergraduate career. She taught me about communications, but most importantly, she opened my eyes to things I didn’t even know about myself. It’s easy to say she’s my mentor, but even more than that, she is my role model. Her tenacity and commitment to her dreams is inspiring. Thanks to Sarah’s presence in my life, I was able to re-imagine my own relation to the natural world.” (September 7, 2017)

– Gabriela Contreras, Communications Associate, Nature Bridge

Green UH Communications Coordinator

“I had the opportunity to work with Sarah as part of the student marketing team on campus and Green UH. She really took the time to thoroughly research green initiatives and add them to the previous knowledge she had about sustainability. What impresses me the most about Sarah is her drive. She is an undeniably hard worker and will go above and beyond to reach the goals she sets. She has something driving her that I think many people lack- passion. I have never met anyone who is so passionate about the environment and promoting the work they are doing. Sarah is truly one of a kind; I look forward to possibly working with her on another project.” (January 6, 2012)