Kelly McClelland

M.A. Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Specialization in Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy, Naropa University
B.A. Marketing, University of Utah

Kelly (she/her) brings realness and an open heart to her work as an Instructor for Where There Be Dragons. She comes from Scottish, Irish, and English descent, as well as Eastern European ancestry. She grew up in the mountains of Park City, Utah in the United States, with a pair of skis strapped on her feet at 3 years old. She went on to study Marketing and Spanish at the University of Utah. She received her Master’s Degree in Wilderness Psychotherapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. During that time Kelly was the Outreach Director and a wilderness guide for Women’s Wilderness, an organization that empowers girls, womxn, and LGBTQIA+ people through nature-connection and community. She served as the Career Development Counselor for Naropa University, helping undergraduate and graduate students discover their unique skills and passions. She was also the Spanish Instructor and Program Guide for Naropa University’s Central America Gap Year program.

Kelly is a wilderness rite of passage guide trained through the lineage of the School of Lost Borders. This work deeply informs the perspectives and curriculum Kelly brings to her Dragons courses as she supports her participants through significant life transitions, uncovering the truth of who they are and what gifts they have to offer their communities. She is committed to collective liberation and offers nature-based strategy and web design for indigenous communities and clients in the social and environmental justice sphere. She is on the Board of Wild Mountain Retreats, a retreat center supporting activists and QT-BIPOC (Queer, Transgender, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) folx. And is working on a variety of human / environmental rights endeavors called Collective Reparations and the Global Biodiversity Narrative Project.

Working for programs like Dragons has been life-changing for Kelly. For her, this is not “just a job” – but a way of life. She believes when we approach travel and learning from a place of intention, curiosity, and reciprocity we begin to form invaluable relationships – with ourselves, one another, different cultures, and the land. These relationships impact on our lives forever and we begin to weave a different story of our personal and collective futures.

Kelly is currently studying Scottish Gaelic, her ancestral language and learning how to play the traditional Irish drum, the Bodrah. She enjoys rock climbing, volleyball, water and snow skiing, scuba diving and surfing. She is a total bird nerd (binoculars, bird book, and all). And loves to learn about the local ecology and cosmology of each place she is blessed to visit.