Marsha Kelly is a veteran of more than forty years in business development, strategic communications and advocacy. Her client roster has included Native American tribes and organizations, commercial trade associations, non-profit organizations, and private sector corporations.
 
Kelly entered private practice as a business development and communications consultant in 1989, after serving in the office of Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich as press secretary and communications director to Lt. Governor Marlene Johnson, the first woman to hold that office in state history.
 
Since 1992, Kelly has served as communications and business development counsel to the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), the first such organization in the country. Minnesota tribes were the first in the nation to sign gaming compacts with the state under the 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). 
 
In 2013, Kelly was appointed to the Economic Development Authority (EDA) of the Mesa Grande Band of Mission Indians in Santa Ysabel, CA to assist the Band in building an economic development program, identifying and pursuing business development opportunities, securing grant funding and bank financing for various tribal projects, and purchasing property to expand the tribe's land base.

In 2017, the Band replaced the EDA with a new entity, the Mesa Grande Business Development Corporation (BDC), to spearhead and direct the Band's economic development efforts. Kelly continues to serve and advise the BDC Board, providing a range of management and support services to advance the Band's community and economic development efforts. 

Kelly also consults with a private sector start-up company in the gaming technology space, assisting with development of business plans, financial projections, investor relations materials, strategic alliances and partnerships, financing approaches, and executive recruitment.
 
Kelly is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota in English and speech/communications.