Find Your Mentor

Kelsey Proud is an independent senior leadership and learning strategist who creates clarity for changemaking individuals and organizations. She brings more than a decade of experience designing transformative learning experiences, coaching emerging and established leaders, and leading award-winning journalism and innovation teams.

Before transitioning to independent practice, Kelsey was part of the team at the Online News Association (ONA). After beginning her time there as Learning Director, Kelsey served on ONA’s leadership team as Head of Programs on an interim basis, overseeing the strategy and operations of ONA’s programs. Her team’s portfolio at ONA included the organization’s flagship annual conference, leadership development initiatives, training on emerging technology, and global community engagement. Kelsey also led the organization’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator program and stewarded the Digital Women Leaders mentorship and coaching initiative.

Prior to her time at ONA, Kelsey was Managing Editor of Audience at public media organization WAMU in D.C. where she led a team of digital journalists, coordinated newsroom training initiatives, and consulted on projects across the organization. Previously, Kelsey spent six years at St. Louis Public Radio in digital and management roles. During her time in St. Louis, the station earned several national awards for digital work including a Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award, an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association and an Edward R. Murrow award.

Mentoring, inclusion and building empathetic teams have been central to Kelsey throughout her career — she has volunteered as an active member of diversity and inclusion committees in her workplaces and as a mentor within the Next Generation Radio and Public Media Women In Journalism programs, among others. Kelsey has been a co-leader and trainer of the Public Media Journalists Association Editor’s Workshop and is a former fellow with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. Her writing on the industry has been published by Nieman Journalism Lab, NPR Training and others, and she is a frequent guest speaker to academic and professional groups.

Kelsey currently lives in Indianapolis with her husband and is excited to talk with you.