On most days, Rob Kelley rises out of bed at his Maine island home to see the first light.  He brews a chai tea and writes for an hour.  Time permitting, he slips on his running shoes and tiptoes out the back door for a jog across the causeway and into the preserve.  By the time he gets home, his two children, ages 13 and 10, are starting to stir.  His magnificent wife soon returns from her own morning run on the trail, and the energy in the house builds.  Now everyone is moving.

Life would be very different for Rob Kelley had he listened to his friends and not auditioned for an acappella group during his sophomore year at Tufts University. Fortunately he ignored them, and the nationally-recognized singing group, in desperate need of basses at the time, took him in.  With that his voice emerged from the showers and onto stages - small ones in college chapels and bigger ones in spacious auditoriums, even some stadiums.  This did no favors for his GPA, but the life experience far outweighed the numbers and lit the way to three of his life’s prizes: his wife and best friend of twenty-five years and their family, magnificent journeys around the world always leading back to his forever home in Maine, and a rewarding career in academia.  He has been affiliated with American University’s School of International Service since 2002 and on its faculty since 2008.