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Alan J. Kelly, MD, FACP
Dr. Alan J. Kelly is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and is now pleased to be practicing Endocrinology at the Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Dr. Alan J. Kelly was born in Libby, MT and raised throughout Western Montana. As a child his family lived near a wilderness area, and their house was not connected to the electrical grid. They did not have a TV and they were an avid outdoors family. He developed a love for the great outdoors and nature at that time. He has fond memories of hiking and camping throughout Montana and Western Canada, especially of Glacier National Park. He and his family were even trapped once in their campground for a day and a night by a grizzly bear while hiking through Glacier National Park. He graduated at the top of his class from Hot Springs High School, in Hot Springs, MT. He enjoyed sports while in high school and lettered in varsity football, basketball, and track.
He then attended Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Electrical engineering was his first major, but he decided half way through college to switch to pre-medicine courses. His father died at that time, at the young age of 50, from malignant melanoma. This was one of the motivating forces behind his switch to studying medicine, besides discovering that he loved the biological sciences. He graduated with honors in Biological Sciences from MSU in 1989. Since Montana is one of the few states without a medical school, he applied to the WICHE and WAMI programs which allow students from Montana (and Alaska, Idaho, and Wyoming, for that matter) to be trained in one of the medical schools in the western US.
He was accepted at the University of Nevada School of Medicine under a WICHE scholarship and graduated in 1994. He did an internship and then finished his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Nevada in 1997. While in training Dr. Kelly developed an interest in both Endocrinology and Oncology. After finishing his residency in December of 1997, he was offered a research associate position with Joao L. Ascensao, M.D., PhD. in the Oncology department at the University of Nevada during the winter and spring of 1998. Dr. Ascensao’s staff was studying how stem cells are regulated and how they are induced to divide and specialize. Dr. Ascensao and some of Dr. Kelly’s classmates were pushing Dr. Kelly to apply to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and become a research and clinical Oncologist. One of his other Endocrine professors wanted him to go on and sub-specialize in Endocrinology.
However, at that point, and against their sage advice, Dr. Kelly decided not to pursue further sub-specialization training and to practice primary care medicine. After 14 years of secondary education, Dr. Kelly and his wife were ready to “settle down”, join the “real world”, and start a family. He and his wife looked at many opportunities around the Pacific Northwest and choose a position as a physician partner at the Bay Clinic in Coos Bay, OR. Oregon seemed like a good place to raise their children. He worked in primary care in Coos Bay from 1998 until 2005, and gained valuable experience as a physician on the busy and demanding “front-lines” of medicine. Not only did he have a busy office practice, but he saw all of his own patients in the hospital, staffed a busy overnight on-call schedule, and staffed the ICU as an “intensivist” physician. He also was the medical director of two nursing home facilities in the area and still enjoys geriatrics. It was also a pleasure to teach medical students as an Associate Professor of Medicine, through the medical school in Portland. The OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University) medical students rotate through Coos Bay on their rural medicine electives. He also set up a rural medicine elective in Coos Bay for the Internal Medicine residents at OHSU in Portland. Dr. Kelly enjoyed his time in Coos Bay – it was a great learning experience and he had wonderful patients and made great friendships in Coos Bay. However, the work load was intense and took a toll – his family was beginning to miss him not being at home or at important family events.
In 2005 Dr. Eddy and his staff invited Dr. Kelly to join the Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology and he started working here in October of 2005. It was too good of an opportunity to pass by. He is excited to be here practicing Endocrinology and excited to have a great mentor like Dr. Eddy.
He is married to Aurora Diaz Kelly and they have 3 young children - Cecilia (age 10), Gabriella (age 7), and Joshua (almost 3). They love the Rogue Valley and are exploring the mountains, rivers, and lakes, and all the new cultural opportunities. They enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking and fishing; and also enjoy gardening, traveling, reading, and visiting museums, etc. They try to travel south to Mexico when they can, as Mrs. Aurora Diaz Kelly still has family there. They also both have a passion for archeology & anthropology and exploring the old Mayan and Aztec ruins. Dr. Kelly is also an avid woodworker.
His mother and brother and sister, and most of his extended family, still live in Northwestern Montana – mainly Missoula and Libby. His in-laws live in Las Vegas, NV. And, as above, Mrs. Kelly still has family in Mexico City – so much of their vacation time is allocated to family visits.
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