DOE manager discusses Oak Ridge Reservation at Jan. 10 meeting

Larry Kelly, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office, will be the featured speaker on Thursday, Jan. 10, at a joint meeting of two local nonprofit organizations. His speech is titled “Managing resources on the Oak Ridge Reservation in a changing environment.”

The talk is sponsored by Advocates for the Oak Ridge Reservation and the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It starts at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Midtown Community Center Wildcat Den, and it is open to the public.

Kelly was named manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office in July 2012. His responsibilities include managing the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge Reservation—which involves work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, East Tennessee Technology Park, and the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office—and the Oak Ridge Integrated Support Center, which provides national and local support services in areas ranging from personnel and finance to security and emergency management.

Before being named to his current position, Kelly had worked for DOE Oak Ridge for 21 years, and before that, he worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, a press release said.

Kelly has a chemical engineering degree from the University of Mississippi and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee.

The press release said both of the groups sponsoring the Jan. 10 talk are local citizen-led nonprofit organizations with missions of preserving, enhancing, and fostering appreciation of and community benefits from elements of Oak Ridge’s unique heritage. AFORR’s main focus is on the natural resources and other assets of the DOE Oak Ridge Reservation, while ORHPA focuses on Oak Ridge’s history and its built environment.

The groups said they hope the Jan. 10 meeting will provide an opportunity for their members to get acquainted with Kelly, as well as to help him learn about their interests in the DOE-managed resources that he is responsible for as manager of the Oak Ridge Office.

Light refreshments will be available. For more information, call Frank Hensley of AFORR at (865) 250-1158.

For more information about the sponsoring organizations, visit their websites at www.orhpa.org and www.aforr.org.