Anne Murphy Kelley

Anne Murphy Kelley of Seattle Washington is a cradle Catholic and relatively short time yoga practitioner. Born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Pasadena, she first experienced the Stations of the Cross at St. Philip the Apostle Church, where she attended grammar school. After attending the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in English Literature (but got a D+ in Bible as Literature), and Hastings College of the Law, where she obtained her J.D., Kelley resettled in Los Angeles to practice law. Early in her professional career she was invited to join the Holy Family 9:30 Mass Choir in South Pasadena, California, where she developed a great love for liturgical music and choral singing—and composed several psalm responses. That passion followed her to Seattle, Washington, where she moved to work for Microsoft Corporation as a corporate attorney. She joined the St Therese 9:00 a.m. choir in 1995 and continues to sing with the choir to this day. A challenging life speed bump caused Kelley to take up the practice of yoga in 2008, which she also continues today. The inspiration for her avocation BodyinPrayer came out of a May 2009 conversation with a fellow choir member and St. Therese' then-lack of Stations of the Cross in the church. Kelley looked for help when creating the meditation from a number of talented sources, including Eric Armusik for the paintings, Cynthia Simon for yoga, Joseph Rojo for music, and her uncle Fr. Lawrence B. Murphy, a Jesuit priest, for critique of the spoken meditations. A wide and wonderful network of musical, yoga and just-plain-old fantastic friends have also played key parts in developing the meditation and bringing it to life in 5 different parishes to date.

Kelley's vocation is her fulfilling work as Associate General Counsel for the Microsoft Corporation. Recent legally-oriented publications include "Practicing Effectively in the Patent Marketplace" in the Winter 2011 edition of the University of Chicago Law Review and a chapter (with Lydia Tamez of Microsoft) entitled "Microsoft's Immigrant and Refugee Rights Programs" in Practising Law Institute's Pro Bono Service by In-House Counsel. Additional extra-professional activities include her service on the boards of the National Christ Child Society and the Washington Policy Center. Kelley, married and widowed in 2000, is fortunate to have a big Irish Catholic family on both her and her husband's sides who enrich her life enormously. In addition to loving art and choral music of all kinds, Kelley is currently enamored with ancient history and learning to cook Indian food. She is always enamored of travel and nearly always attached to a book.