Patricia Kelley

Patricia Kelley http://www.uncw.edu/earsci/PeopleKelley.html parlayed an interest in dinosaurs at age 7 into a lifetime of studying and teaching about fossils.  She received her BA in Geology from the College of Wooster in 1975 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1979. She taught at New England College, University of Mississippi, and University of North Dakota, and was a program officer at the National Science Foundation, before joining the faculty of the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 1997.  She is a former president of the Paleontological Society and former president of the Board of Trustees of the Paleontological Research Institution. Her research on evolutionary paleoecology of mollusks (not dinosaurs!) earned her the University of North Dakota Faculty Award for Outstanding Scientific Research and the UNCW Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.  She received the Association for Women Geoscientists Outstanding Educator Award in 2003 and the AWG Professional Excellence Award in 2011. At UNCW she has received the Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award, Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award, Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award and UNC Board of Governors Teaching Excellence Award.  In 2014 she was named the U.S. Outstanding Master's Universities and Colleges Professor of the Year.  When not occupied with professional tasks, Tricia enjoys watching Johnny Depp movies and spending time with family, including watching Barney reruns with granddaughter McKenzie. (Someday Tricia will have to break the news that, unlike Barney, the real T. rex probably wasn’t purple and may even have been covered in feathers, at least as a juvenile.)