Kelly Klima is a senior engineer at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She specializes in decision analysis on energy and the environment. Recent energy and climate work has focused on energy transitions. Studies include electricity demands to support indoor temperature thresholds, AI demands for electricity and related transition needs, natural gas decommissioning, resilience of California's electricity infrastructure to current and future natural hazards, energy equity now and in the future, and geographic smoothing of solar photovoltaics. Klima's research work supports community resilience for extreme heat and flooding throughout the world, and has been applied in the City of Pittsburgh, City of St. Paul, counties in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

She also serves as a Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty member, an adjunct assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and a summer associate mentor. Klima holds a CFM from the Association of State Floodplain Managers and a CCEA from the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association. She earned her Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.