Kelly is an environmental epidemiologist and spatial data scientist tackling a growing health challenge: how wildfire smoke pollution affects reproductive health. Wildfire smoke contains a mixture of harmful chemicals, and its composition varies depending on what burns—man-made materials can be far more toxic. Kelly is developing a framework using causal AI, which focuses on understanding relationships rather than predicting patterns. By combining advanced modeling with clinician input, the project aims to pinpoint which chemical combinations pose the greatest risks to human health while keeping results transparent and understandable. “This is such an important problem locally and regionally, and One-U RAI is an ideal environment for this research,” said Kelly, who is on track to earn her PhD in population health sciences from the U in August 2026 and will begin her postdoc the following month.
