Kelly Sanks

Climate Impacts Analyst

Kelly Sanks is a climate impacts analyst at the Center for Climate Integrity, where she uses science to inform climate models and associated climate adaption costs.

Kelly earned her PhD in Geoscience from the University of Arkansas in 2021, where she studied the interaction of river deltas and wetlands. During her PhD, she also worked as a Hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, where she worked on various projects related to changing river conditions in the southeastern United States. Before joining CCI in 2023, Kelly worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Tulane University, where she taught Global Climate Change, researched carbon accumulation in coastal environments and its potential role as a nature-based climate solution, and volunteered as a community science fellow.

Kelly currently lives in New Orleans, LA. She enjoys spending her free time outdoors and is an avid hiker.