John Kelly owns and operates Sophora Services. He is Deputy Chief of the Space Projects and Partnerships branch at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Sophora Services is owned and operated by Mr. John Kelly. John Kelly retired from NASA in November 2024 after a 36 year career. He was Deputy Chief of the Space Projects and Partnerships branch at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, where he had worked since 1988, except for a short stint in commercial aerospace in 1996 and a detail assignment to Mojave Air and Space Port in 2013. Mr. Kelly has served in many discipline areas during his career, including, flight controls and flight systems engineering, software engineering, information technology management, and various roles in program and project management. Mr. Kelly earned a B.S. Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott AZ (1992), and an MBA with IT emphasis from University of La Verne (2008). Mr. Kelly is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is a registered Project Management Professional (PMP®, 2007). Mr. Kelly has mentored FIRST Robotics teams since 2008 and is currently a mentor/coach of Testing is Optional (FTC 21579), part of Northwest Tucson Robotics Club, Tucson, Arizona.

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy, simply stated, is: Socratic and Come alongside. I believe that most students can perform beyond what our culture expects of them. I believe in providing a sufficiently rigorous curriculum, with as much “real world” content and application as possible, putting into practice what is learned and struggling a bit through the How and Why. I believe in challenging the student with trying to “figure stuff out,” but I am willing to come alongside in that endeavor, requiring the student to think through particular problems and applications.

Statement of Faith

Mr. Kelly and his wife are residents of Tucson AZ and members of Desert Son Community Church, which is primarily Evangelical. - I believe that I am a sinner, a state inherited from Adam and displayed in my daily living. Hrumph! - I believe that God is all-holy, perfect in every thing, including in Love and in judgment. - I believe that because of the incongruity between my state and God’s holiness, I deserve death, that is, to be separated from Him forever! However, - I believe that God foreordained Christ to come to the world He created, to make satisfaction for the debt we owed because of sin, and to be the Perfect Sacrifice in my place, allowing me to stand holy (in position) before God. Christ closed that separation. - I believe in God’s Spirit, that He dwells in me as I struggle through this gift called life, being made more holy by his urging and through daily disciplines (which don’t save me, but highlight my need). I believe that, practically speaking, I am still a sinner (in practice) whose faith is bolstered through the experience of life. - I summarize the “faith process” (sanctification) like this: the more I know, the further away from God I realize that I am. I thank Him for His indescribable gift of Love through Christ, which He planned before the Earth was even formed, and through which I understand that it is a remarkable gift in light of how far separated I know I would be without Him.