Laura Kelley

Laura Kelley is an American traveler and writer whose works fall into two broad categories. Those which have substantial influence on international health programs such as UNAIDS, The Global Fund and ; and more recently in the realm of international cultures and cuisines.
Kelley is the principal author of the National Intelligence Council report, "The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India and China" which was published in 2002 and depicted a growing, global crisis in the "next wave" of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This paper was very influential in the foundation of the US PEPFAR program (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and prompted managers of the Global Fund to set aside special monies for the five countries treated in the report.
In 2004, she created the National Material Threat Assessment (MTA) process for the US Department of Homeland Security. MTAs were interagency threat assessments used to characterize CBRN threats; identify knowledge gaps and inform agent-specific threat research; and help inform policy deliberations on medical countermeasures. They were crucial for the issuance of a DHS Material Threat Determination and were required to functionally stand up Project Bioshield and put medical countermeasures funding on a rational basis.
"The Muslim Face of AIDS" and "Behind the Veil of a Public Health Crisis", both co-authored with American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Nicholas Eberstadt in 2005, portrayed the growing HIV/AIDS crisis in the Muslim World, home to over 1 billion people. This paper pointed out that an absence of evidence in infection statistics - caused by a lack of sentinel surveillance - was not evidence of an absence of infection in Muslim countries.
In 2005, Kelley's paper, "Is H5N1 The One? Avian Flu Facts and Fiction" published was by AEI, and questioned how plentiful and conclusive the science was given the large amount of international health policy and preparedness activities that were occurring.
More recently in 2009, Kelley has published the first in her series of The Silk Road Gourmet cookbooks in which she redefines Asian food by showing links between cultures and cuisines thousands of miles apart. Early reviews of the book by chefs and food writers have been extremely positive.,
Kelley lives near Washington, DC where she writes and lectures from time to time on the future impact of health on economics and politics and social systems. She also is a menu consultant for area restaurants and lectures on Asian food and traveling in Asia.

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