Lurene Kelley is the Special Assistant for Organizational Communication at the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office.  Her work includes media relations, communication strategy, community outreach and special project management.  She is the editor of DefendShelbyCo.org, a blog dedicated to stories of justice from Memphis and beyond.

Previously, Lurene was an assistant professor for the University of Memphis Department of Journalism where she taught broadcast journalism, social media, and multimedia reporting.  In 2012, she was selected a Scripps-Howard Fellow for the Journalism Entrepreneurial Institute at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

Lurene is a former television journalist and reported for local CBS affiliates in Montana, Knoxville and Memphis, Tennessee.  She is currently an on-air contributor to Smart Medicine, an Emmy-award winning health magazine broadcast monthly on Memphis public television, WKNO-TV. 

You can find Lurene on Twitter @lurenekelley or hanging around Midtown Memphis with her husband, two lively kids and even livelier dog.