South Central Regional Senior Strategist

scregion@bestfriends.org

Kelly Burley is a senior strategist in the South-Central Region, focusing on the development of a regional framework for animal shelter engagement in Oklahoma through a grant from the Kirkpatrick Foundation. As a connector, Kelly works with a dozen animal shelter leaders across the state to mentor animal shelters in their region, sharing information about Best Friends' grant and knowledge building opportunities. Burley also convenes quarterly regional meetings of animal shelters to explore collaborative opportunities and best practices. 

Previously, Burley led NPR member station KOSU (2008- 2019), raising more than $15 million to expand the station’s local content services through collaborative journalism, music, and community programming initiatives while building new broadcast studios and radio frequencies. In earlier content development roles with KOSU, Burley received three national Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and two Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards. From 2003-2008, Burley served as associate state director with AARP Oklahoma, communicating association priorities with the state’s 400,000 members.