Kelly Matheson

Bio

Kelly has been a human rights lawyer for over 20 years. She graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1999 and then began her career working at the intersection of environment and human rights in Tanzania. Upon returning from East Africa, Kelly found herself working to protect the landscapes of the western U.S. from fossil fuel development. Kelly then took a break from law to pursue an M.F.A. in Science and Natural History Filmmaking from Montana State University.

This is how she met Our Children’s Trust. In 2010, Kelly was leading the North American program for the international human rights organization, WITNESS, and as part of her work she partnered with OCT to create a ten-part film series “Stories of TRUST,” elevating the voices of OCT’s youth plaintiffs. Once this partnership ended, Kelly stepped onto OCT’s Board while traveling the world teaching communities how to use video to document grave international crimes and devastating human and environmental rights violations. Kelly now heads up all of the global work at Our Children’s Trust. In her off-time, she can be found with her dogs Tingo and Charley, rowing or paddle boarding around the canals of Amsterdam, or biking the tens of thousands of miles of bike paths throughout Europe.