Carlene Kelly is a writer, speaker, and the director of Kelly New Day Ministries, Inc. She has been actively involved throughout her life in church ministries for children, women, music, arts, drama, and in teaching others how to pray more effectively. Carlene has cowritten and directs two fictional four-act musical dramatic works (The Lost Shepherd and Stix And Stones) that are performed live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, each year during the Easter season

She and her husband, Leroy, were married in 1969, and together they have pastored four churches located in Texas, Louisiana, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a ministry team, they have also traveled extensively across the United States in evangelistic itinerant work. They have three children and four grandchildren.