Kelly Houck

As a member of the Research Initiatives Team, Kelly oversees student programs at GRI including the Global Scholars Program, Summer Fellows, and Student Innovation. She also manages Professional Development Awards for students traveling to conferences to present their research. Her primary goal is to support undergraduate student learning by facilitating extraordinary opportunities in collaboration with William & Mary faculty, campus partners, alumni network, and external organizations.

In the Fall, she teaches a course for students in the Global Scholars Program's Global Policy cohort with Dr. Alex Joosse (and previously with Dr. Ryan Musto). At the University of Texas at Austin, Kelly taught intensive Persian language courses and Iranian history from 1979-today.

Kelly graduated from William & Mary with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and French & Francophone Studies in 2012 and earned her M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. She completed four years of the Ph.D. program in Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures at the University of Texas at Austin before leaving academia and pivoting to higher education. Her academic expertise lies in modern Iranian history, the Persian language, and Iranian cinema.

In her free time, Kelly likes reading nonfiction books about nature, playing videos games with her husband (W&M ’11), and finding creative ways to make her toddler laugh.