Kelsey is an Associate Professor at UCSB in the Bren School and Department of Economics. She conducts research at the intersection of environmental and development economics, with a focus on how individuals, households, and communities decide to use natural resources and provide public goods. She has conducted research in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and has ongoing work in South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Niger. Prior to UCSB, Kelsey was an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Tufts University and a postdoc at MIT with the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI) at J-PAL. She holds a bachelor's degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University. Before graduate school, she spent two years in Lao PDR working for IUCN.