Mayo Clinic. I was given a 2% chance of living. That is a spur to me to show them they were wrong. They said I would never have children, would never travel to third world countries, I could never do athletics. They said I would be a victim the rest of my life. My entire colon burst on a beach in Oregon. I guess I could have given up, but no. I was thinking, somebody had it worse and I could be an inspiration if I can get down to the end of the hall that day. I had random people tell me that I would be OK. I had one pair of jeans to my name, one v t-neck Haines shirt, one pair of Doc Martens. I forced myself to put them on every morning. I took my stupid IV pole and I walked up and down every hallway in St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn. I was so grateful for everything I had. I had been reborn and nothing could stop me after that.
USA Wrestler: Your career started as an English teacher in a challenging North Carolina school. What did you enjoy about helping young people? Kelley: Because of my health, I took a year deferral. I was the only one from Teach America who could take that deferral. I had something to work towards. I was going to go, no matter what. What the students didn’t expect was I was a tiny 24-year old woman, but I just faced death. People can smell that on you. I had tough guys in my class. They knew that I was not afraid of them, and they were going to learn. If I was going to do it in a non-traditional way, that is what I was going to do. I had almost 100% attendance rate. They would skip other classes, but not mine. I decided to teach serious stuff. We did Dante’s Inferno and I had them make dioramas, and they were all assigned dif- ferent parts of hell. It’s amazing how creative they got. I got those kids to study the deepest literature. They were going to do better on test scores. They were all really smart, they just didn’t try. They weren’t inspired. My students were either Native American, African-American, and I had some real rural white kids. They were getting by on their own resources, and we just bonded. They scored so high on the state exams, we were accused of cheating. We knocked it out of the park. Test scores went up 150%. I ended up teaching the teachers how to teach.
USA Wrestler: How did you develop your career in technical writing job and technology? Kelley: My mom went to medical school when I was in col- lege, and she was in her residency when I went to Teach America. I went back to help her. She was older than most stu- dents, and she had bitten off a lot. I went with her to the Mayo Clinic, and worked as a desk girl who checked you in. I was bored. I found myself teaching the doctors how to use email. I am kind of a Forest Gump in life. I am an accident who landed at just the right places at just the right time when everything was changing and inserted myself in that historical moment. At Mayo, they were converting from x-rays to putting things online. I helped them master those skills, and I got interested in learn- ing HTML. If I wanted to do real communications and writing. That was the way things were going. I put in an application to IBM, but didn’t expect to get it. After a year at Mayo, I got hired at IBM. They took a big risk on me, like Steve Fraser took a risk making me Greco Team Leader. I am constantly living up to my potential. My job is showing them they didn’t make a mistake choosing me. I’m a hard worker and don’t give up.
USA Wrestler: You worked for IBM and then got your Masters degree. How did that fit your career plans? Kelley: Unlike most women, I am not good at multi-tasking. I’m more masculine. I prefer to focus on one thing at a time and really do it well. I worked my butt off at IBM. I got a glimpse of
Silicon Valley life. I was there for the Y2K scare. I was there that night to help cover. It was an interesting time to be there. I was recommended for a program in New Mexico that specialized in technical and professional communications. I wanted to do the best. I got a leave of absence and did a two-year Masters pro- gram in a year with a 4.0. I was also a TA, teaching business majors and engineers and others. I did an internship with the Dean of the college, and updated their website. I wrote a techni- cal manual about how to update the website, which at that time was a new thing to do. I wanted to make that accessible to other people.
USA Wrestler: What brought you to Google, where you were as a senior editor when that company took off? Kelley: My ex-husband and I had a plan to go to Silicon
Valley. We both interviewed and got accepted at IBM’s lab in San Jose as well as job offers at Google. At that time, Google was one building, with a small sales and programming team. I realized IBM had systems in place. Google didn’t know what it needed from a tech editor. I took the IBM job and my ex took the Google job. At that moment, IBM changed their whole infor- mation system. I was on a special task force to change the sys- tem. I was in a perfect place to learn for Google what they needed to build theirs. After about a year and a half, we realized Google would be fine, and I ended up going there to be their first editor. There was no hierarchy there, so I built it up from scratch.
USA Wrestler: What is the back story about how you got so involved with our Greco-Roman program? Kelley: When I was at Google, I was one of the older people at 30, so I would go to the finance meetings and the legal meet- ings. When we decided to go IPO, I was the person to work with Morgan Stanley. Dave Surofchek happened to be that person. I got to know him well, and really admired him. I found out he was an Olympic-level wrestler in Greco-Roman and it brought back my love for sports and wrestling. When I visited Colorado with my family, Dave took us to the training center and gave us a tour, and I was hooked. At the time, I asked nonchalantly how the Kit Carson Cup event was funded. I learned that it was fund- ed by the military, but they had cuts and so it was losing its funding. When I found out how much, I realized an individual could fund it. I was prepared to go to ask Google or IBM to fund the Cup, because this was that important. You can’t lose this. This was for Olympic supremacy. I didn’t want them to lose any- thing. I watched every minute of the Olympics since I was as small. It’s the one thing I have never been disappointed with. To me, Olympic athletes are the most impressive people I could think of. Look at all the sacrifices they make for one shot, and they don’t always make it. I could get on board with those kind of people. So I stepped up.
USA Wrestler: What do you enjoy about helping build our Greco-Roman program? Kelley: The Greco and the women wrestlers are non-tradi-
tional. They are not who you would expect. They all have big personalities and are a little rough around the edges. They have character. They are usually fighting from behind. They are like Rocky. I love the underdog stories. I want nothing more than to have our Greco team show what we have inside of us. I can see the potential there. I can also see the obstacles there that is preventing it. We are not machines, like the Russian team. We are very human and make human mistakes. This team is all heart, one big heart. They are the nicest people. They are will-
Continued on page 32 25 USA Wrestler
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