Kelly Kaplan (''née'' George; born September 10, 1982) is a social media, public relations and communication professional, and former officer in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

, and a beauty queen from

Mission Viejo, California Mission Viejo ( ; corruption of ''Misión Vieja'', Spanish for "Old Mission") is a commuter city in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, California, United States. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities eve ...

, who competed for the Miss USA title in 2007.

Biography

George grew up in

, and attended

Trabuco Hills High School Trabuco Hills High School is a high school in Mission Viejo, California, United States. It is in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Awards THHS has received: *2002 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Demographics The demogra ...

. She later gained a BA in communications from

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

, in part paid for by the $25,000 she earned in scholarship money by competing in pageants. She had placed third runner-up at Miss Maryland 2004 pageant and second runner-up in 2005. While at the University of Maryland she joined the university's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps programme. She was later commissioned as a second lieutenant. She then moved to Arkansas where she studied for her master's degree at University of Arkansas, Little Rock. She has worked as an intern at the press desk of the

Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out aut ...

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

and as deputy chief of Public Affairs for the 314th Airlift Wing at

Little Rock Air Force Base Little Rock Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas. Little Rock AFB is the primary C-130 Hercules training base for the Department of Defense, training C-130 pilots, naviga ...

. While stationed in Arkansas she won the

Miss Arkansas USA Miss Arkansas USA, previously known as Miss Arkansas Universe, is the beauty pageant that selects the representative for the state of Arkansas in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. The pageant is directed by Va ...

2007 title in the state pageant held in

Conway, Arkansas Conway is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Faulkner County, located in the state's most populous Metropolitan Statistical Area, Central Arkansas. Although considered a suburb of Little Rock, Conway is unusual in that ...

. A resident of

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland *Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district from ...

, she was presented with the key to the city. George competed in the

Miss USA 2007 Miss USA 2007 was the 56th Miss USA pageant, held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on March 23, 2007, after two weeks of events and preliminary competition. The winner of the pageant was Rachel Smith of Tennessee. The pageant was broa ...

pageant, which was broadcast live from the

Kodak Theatre The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, on March 23, 2007. She was the first active-duty military member to compete in the pageant in its 56-year history. George is a former morning/noon news anchor for KNWA in

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until ...

. She also was featured on "Arkansas at Noon" a combination newscast on KARK where both Little Rock and Fayetteville participate. KNWA and KARK are sister NBC affiliate stations. She then moved to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

where she worked for the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

as Director of Social Media and currently works as a spokeswoman for

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

References

External links

Personal website

Miss USA official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Kelly 1982 births Living people Boeing people Miss USA 2007 delegates People from Sherwood, Arkansas Women in the United States Air Force United States Air Force officers University of Maryland, College Park alumni American television news anchors Television anchors from Houston Trabuco Hills High School alumni