Kelly Henderson

LinkedIn

Executive Director

Pronouns: she/they

Kelly Henderson is a sustainability, equity, education and community engagement professional who prioritizes relational and heart-centered leadership in her work. She is also an engaged community member and part of the Planning Commission where she lives in Homestead.

Before coming to Grounded, she spent time as the Program Director for Sustainable Pittsburgh, the K-12 Education Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty for Chatham University’s sustainable Eden Hall Campus, the Sustainability and Communications Coordinator for The Efficiency Network and a Building Strategy Fellow for the Green Building Alliance. She has also worked in the renewable energy, environmental education and outdoor education fields in various capacities.

Kelly has been recognized regionally and nationally for her leadership in impactful program development, in collaboration with community leaders. She is most proud of:

  • The Sustainable Leadership Academy – a residential program for teenagers
  • Growing Teacher Advocates – a multi-day educator professional development program that combined garden based education, intergroup dialogue, and a book study group to explore the ways that both the food system and the education system are racialized, as well as educators’ roles in creating change in both of these systems

Kelly has a BA in Physics from Colgate University, an MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and an MAT in Secondary Science Education from Chatham University. She has training in Intergroup Dialogue facilitation from the University of Michigan, Cross-Cultural Facilitation from Stir Fry Seminars and is a LUMA Institute Certified Practitioner in Human-Centered Design. She also sits on the board of Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) and PULSE Pittsburgh as well as the STEM Education for Sustainable Development and Network for Emergent Socioscientific Thinking Advisory Committee through the Smithsonian Institution’s Science Education Center.

Kelly finds joy in backpacking, reading, all forms of social dance, experimental gardening, being in community with friends and neighbors, making art and playing music.