Office of Communications: Personnel
Karen Kelley
During her 10 years at the University of Georgia, Karen Kelley has done everything from hand checks to the runner for the UGA football team – athletes don't actually pick up their own scholarship checks – to help British home canners as they order "So Easy to Preserve."
She started out in the physical plant and then moved through business services in student accounts and accounts payable. Now she's the sales and shipping coordinator for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Communications.
She loves sales and shipping because "every day brings something different," she said. "It's not one of those routine jobs."
On this particular Tuesday, she has eight pallets of pesticide handbooks coming in and boxes of monthly peanut reports to mail out. It's her job to sort and ship publications – both those the college sells and ones county Cooperative Extension offices order.
She spends most of her time working solo at the bottom of the Hoke Smith Annex, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have public contact. Karen is the voice of the college for many people. She's connected internationally through her phone line, taking calls from England, Canada, Hawaii, Alaska and every other state in the U.S.
"They love the 'So Easy to Preserve' book," she said. "That's where I'm getting most of the calls… And they just talk and talk and talk. They find us on the Internet, and they want that book."
Karen's response to the attention is "wow, can on!"
International isn't something new for Karen. At 18, she left her hometown of Athens and "grew up" in the U.S. Air Force. When her eight years with the military were over, she was a staff sergeant with "10 little troops under me."
She had trained troops on how to use their gas masks and had also traveled to Italy to help with food relief. "When you see them do a food drop on TV, they really do just drop the food and expect good people to get it," she said. "We are so blessed. We don't realize how blessed we are."
Karen enjoyed the Air Force, but she's glad to be back in her hometown, especially after experiencing blizzards while stationed in New Jersey. Currently, Karen spends most of her time "being a mommy" to her sixth-grade son Bryce and attending classes at Athens Technical College. She also sings soprano in her church's choir.