Born in 1938, Miriam Friedman Kelty grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She originally left the city to study at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, but transferred back to New York to attend the City College of New York her senior year. She then took a laboratory position at the Institute of Animal Behavior at Rutgers University and earned her Ph.D. in psychology and psychobiology in 1965.
Kelty's early career was spent researching hormones and sexual behavior in birds and sleep behavior. In 1968, Kelty became a research psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) and was involved with developing standards for mental health services. She worked for the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavior Research from 1975 to 1978, during which she assisted on several projects including the Belmont report on ethical principles for research with humans. She then returned to the NIH to work as a scientific review administrator at the Center for Scientific Review.
In 1986, Kelty became the director of extramural research for the National Institute of Aging, a position she held for 20 years. That same year, Kelty was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement in Science. Drawing on her expertise in bioethics, she founded the Inter-Institute Bioethics Interest Group in 1995. Though she retired in 2006, she continues to serve as chair of the ethics interest group and consult with NIH.
From the guide to the Miriam Friedman Kelty papers, 1968-1974, (Center for the History of Psychology)
