Students and faculty in the IMA Program have long valued Kelly’s talents as a filmmaker, teacher, mentor, and colleague. As Ricardo Miranda aptly put it, this recognition is “hugely deserved.” Now others at Hunter will get a sense of just how lucky we are to have Kelly here.

Yesterday I watched as Kelly provided insightful guidance in a thesis defense and spent hours interviewing IMA students interested in teaching sections of 150 and 160. She gave no hint that she had received this award, but she must have known.

Kelly was simply doing what she always does at Hunter, giving herself fully to the task at hand. That’s one of the qualities that distinguishes her creative work – she puts so much of herself into her films. In a recent interview, the author Jonathan Franzen noted that the writers he admires most “palpably have skin in the game.” Kelly has definitely got lots of skin the game.