Kelly Schlegel is the recent appointee by the New Mexico Governor to the Broadband Director position, responsible for internet for all, especially in rural New Mexico.  Kelly has 40 years’ experience at the Boeing Company in system engineering, software engineering, and executive program management for large military development programs.

Kelly has provided leadership and engineering to many programs over her career:  ICBMs such as Peacekeeper and Minuteman, F-111C Airplane, Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet) program for Department of Homeland Security, Ground Based Interceptor (GBI), military communications such as Family of Advanced Line of Site Terminals, which modernized military satellite communications for the Air Force, and Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Ground Mobile Radio (GMR) for the Army. Kelly was also Software Director of The Defense Agency Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Orbital Express Advanced Technology Demonstration Program, which developed and demonstrated autonomous techniques for on-orbit refueling and reconfiguration of satellites.  She helped to run a Boeing subsidiary specializing in Logistics and Data Analytics.

Kelly retired from the Boeing Company and owns a small consulting firm called SchlegelTech with her husband Bill. She has expanded her engineering consulting to include career counseling and lifestyle coaching especially for early career people.  Kelly loves to give back and so she is currently using the skills she honed at the Boeing company to help two charities: Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in the area of homelessness prevention and Elsinore Valley Resource Pregnancy Center that provides resources for women in crisis pregnancy to raise their children.  Kelly donates her time to many ministries at church and has a passion for young people getting started on the right foot.  She also donates her time to the Boeing Innovation 2.0 program that teaches employees how to think innovatively.

Kelly graduated with a B.S. from the University of New Mexico where she was a Tri-Delta, and she holds an MBA from the University of Redlands. She has been married 41 years to Bill, a high school science teacher and has 2 sons, one who works for the State of New Mexico in small business leadership, and one who works as a Physician Assistant in Heart Surgery at St. Bernadine’s hospital. Kelly enjoys cooking and camping and holistic health studies.

Awards and Recognition:

1. Sarah Ida Shaw Award for Phi Delta Chapter -1979
2. Amelia Earhart Society Pioneer Award – 2005
3. Outstanding Contribution to Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Engineering -2005
4. 100% Mission Success Award for the Orbital Express Satellite Program – 2007
5. Leadership California – 2010
6. National Management Association Silver Knight of Leadership Award – 2014