Kelly Bare

Kelly Bare is a Lincoln, Nebraska native living in Brooklyn, New York, with her two teenage children. She is a writer and editor with a background in magazine journalism, book publishing, digital media, and strategic communications. She spent almost a decade at The New Yorker, helping the near-century-old magazine become fully digital, then left to help cover the rise of Donald Trump at Bloomberg Politics from 2014-2017. Since then she has devoted herself to teaching and interdisciplinary scholarship.

A favorite project at the moment is her communications work with The Public Good, a new entity out of Columbia Teachers College. The Public Good studies, supports, and shares stories about racially and socioeconomically integrated public school communities, fostering a national conversation about how we might break persistent cycles of re-segregation, and the role these schools communities could play in the future of our democracy. Her work with schools as a parent and a professional has led her into community organizing, with a focus on bringing people together to work collectively across lines of difference, real or perceived.

She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1998 with a joint BSJ/MSJ and a double major in English Literature. She believes that everyone has a powerful story to tell, and that once they find their voice, it can’t help but flow out. She also believes that everybody needs an editor. Oh, and Elmore Leonard named a character after her—true story.

• Writing
• Editing
• Community building
• Collaborative leadership practices
• Arts-based and other qualitative research methods

• Molloy University, Ed.D. in Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities, 2024
• Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, MS in Journalism, 1998
• Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, BS in Journalism and English Literature, 1997

• Freelance editor, writer, and communications consultant

• Former editor at the New Yorker

• Roda, A., Barbour, F., & Bare, K. (2024). Realizing the solidarity dividend: A new story for educational leadership. Leadership Policy and Schools Journal.

• Bare, K. (2024). “Stay in your lane: An arts-based research journey.” In Gene Fellner (Ed.). Arts-Based Research and the Practice of Freedom, Brill.

• Bare, K. (2013). Making Money: Phone Home. The New Yorker.

• Bare, K. (2013). Making Money: Schooling Brooklyn Parents. The New Yorker.

• Bare, K. (2010). Nebraska's New Option. The New Yorker.

• Bare, K. (2009). For Richer or Poorer. The New Yorker.

• Bare, K. (present). The Public Good. Teachers College at Columbia University.