Kelly Whitney is a member of the Investigation, Hearing, & Appeal Services Team at Grand River Solutions. In addition to providing these services to clients, Kelly facilitates trainings on conducting effective investigations and report writing. She also manages an internal team.    

Kelly works as part of the Grand River Solutions team since 2019, after running her own successful investigations firm for 20 years.  Before becoming a neutral investigator, she conducted investigations on behalf of both complainants and respondents, which shaped her balanced approach. She has designed and delivered trainings to investigators in many areas, including higher education. 

Kelly has conducted workplace, civil, criminal, juvenile, higher education, and other investigations. She served as an independent outside investigator for over 50 institutions of higher education and K-12 schools throughout the country. She conducted thousands of trauma-informed interviews relating to violent incidents, including, high-profile “gang rape” cases, sexual assault, incapacitation, and other non-consensual contact, in addition to discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and hostile environment claims based on protected class status. She investigated more than 100 homicide and sexual assault cases throughout the Bay Area. Due to her extensive experience in investigations, Kelly has been called on to testify about her cases in criminal and civil state and federal courts, as well as in higher education hearings. 

Kelly was trained in child forensic interviewing and Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI) techniques. She also served as Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), writer’s coach to middle schoolers, and is a foster parent. She has extensive experience working with high-risk youth and participated in the restorative justice process in her juvenile cases. Kelly maintains a communicative atmosphere of respect, trust, and empathy while attending to the rigorous task of gathering and interpreting information. 

Kelly has a B.S. in Social Ecology, with an emphasis in criminal justice. She has been licensed with the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services in California for 30 years, has worked at the highest levels in criminal investigations, and participated in the Bryan R. Shechmeister Death Penalty College at Santa Clara Law School for her work on capital murder cases.