[2] She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania,[3][4] where she was captain for both the field hockey and lacrosse teams.
[5][6] She then received a Thouron fellowship which allowed her to pursue a PhD at the University of Cambridge, England, under the supervision of Susan Iversen.
[3] During her PhD and the following years she studied the mesocorticostriatal systems and the role of opioids in interactions between the striatum and hypothalamic regulatory circuits in the control of behavior.
Together with Min Zhang she performed a microinfusion study that showed that the ventral and lateral areas of the striatum, including both the shell and the core of the nucleus accumbens, were most sensitive to injections of opioids causing behavioural changes.
[10][13] Together with Ned Kalin, Kelley demonstrated the role of the amygdala in the linking of sensory representations and their motivational value.
[14][16] They showed that these projection were much more extensive than previously thought, and that the amygdala innervates large parts of the caudal striatum.
[17][19] Two years after her death, Kelley posthumously received the Patricia Goldman-Rakic Hall of Honor award by the Society for Neuroscience.