Rev. Trisa Kelly was born in New Jersey and raised in Portland, Oregon, graduating in 1989 from Thomas Jefferson High School.  She graduated from Portland State University with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and French. 

Feeling a call to ministry, she began seminary at Western Evangelical Seminary, now named the George Fox Seminary, but later completed her studies at Western Seminary. 

She joined the Oregon Air National Guard in August 2002 where she became the first female chaplain.  Within her first year of assignment to the 142nd Fighter Wing, she took on the grand task as sole chaplain for the wing when both the Wing Chaplain and the other Protestant chaplain were deployed.
Chaplain, Captain Kelly continues to serve with the Oregon Air National Guard’s 142d Fighter Wing providing counseling to the airmen, officiating marriages and christenings along with worship services each weekend during her monthly duty at the Portland Airbase. 

As a civilian, she is employed as a Medicaid Eligibility Specialist for Multnomah County in Portland, Oregon.  She was ordained with the Church of God, Anderson in 1997 and has served as an associate pastor at Maranatha Church in Portland since then. 

Pastor Kelly is the mother of two:  Tobias and Sydney.