Kathy Kelly, 50, of Chicago, IL, is internationally known for organizing Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end sanctions against Iraq. In open violation of the sanctions, she and other campaign members were notified of a proposed $163,000 penalty, threatened with 12 years in prison, and eventually fined $50,000 - a sum which they've refused to pay – for delivering medicine and toys to Iraq. Between 1996 and 2003, Voices in the Wilderness organized 70 delegations to visit Iraq. Since 1996, Kelly has been to Iraq twenty times. In October 2002, she joined Iraq Peace Team members in Baghdad where she and the peace team maintained a presence throughout the invasion, bombardment, and occupation. On April 19, 2003, Kelly left Iraq.

During the first two weeks of the Gulf War, she was part of a peace encampment on the Iraq-Saudi border called the Gulf Peace Team. Following evacuation to Amman, Jordan in February 1991, team members stayed in the region for the next six months to help coordinate medical relief convoys and study teams. In 1988 she was sentenced to one year in prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites. Kelly served nine months of the sentence in Lexington KY maximum security prison.

Kelly has taught in Chicago area community colleges and high schools since 1974. From 1980 - 1986 she taught at St. Ignatius College Prep (Chicago, IL ). She is active with the Catholic Worker movement and, as a pacifist and war tax refuser, has refused payment of all Federal income tax for 23 years. She helped organize and participated in nonviolent direct action teams in Haiti (summer of 1994), Bosnia (August, 1993, December, 1992) and Iraq (Gulf Peace Team, 1991). In April of 2002, she was among the first internationals to visit the Jenin camp in the Occupied West Bank. She presently helps coordinate the Voices in the Wilderness campaign.

Kelly holds a B.A. from Loyola University at Chicago and Masters in Religious Education from Chicago Theological Seminary. She has received numerous awards and distinctions for her work including: Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award, 1998; Offices of the Americas Peace and Justice Award, 1999; Dan Berrigan Award, De Paul University, 1999; and Fellowship of Reconciliation Pfeffer International Peace Award, 2000. She is a three-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee (2000, 2001, and 2003).