In 1986, Feely was working as a public relations consultant for the television documentary The Children's War, about the work of the Children's National Medical Center; a New York Times review called it "a plea for children's accident prevention". Feely and surgeon Dr. Martin R. Eichelberger collaborated on multiple projects for the hospital's trauma center, including the National Children's Accident Prevention Campaign, before developing the concept of a dedicated national nonprofit. They launched the National Safe Kids Campaign in September 1987 with five years of funding from Johnson & Johnson. United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop served as its chairman for its first thirteen years. Feely served as the Safe Kids executive director for its first six years. She appeared before the United States Congress and was extensively quoted in national media about the Safe Kids efforts to prevent children's accidental injuries, from campaigns for bicycle helmets, to prevention of burns, to safe playground equipment, to child safety seats to many other issues. In 2005, the National Safe Kids Campaign officially became Safe Kids Worldwide, with 21 affiliates in different countries. Feely returned to work for Safe Kids Worldwide from 2006 to 2007.
Editing
In 2007 Feely launched Chrysalis Editorial Services as a sole proprietorship offering manuscript critique, writing coaching, ghostwriting, book proposal advice and support, and agent/publisher support and services. She has ghostwritten three memoirs. Authors she has helped include Lee DiPietro, Marian Wernicke, Roger Marum, Anna Koczak, Jan Cigliano, Tobias Lanz, and Cynthia Tocci.
Writing
Feely's novel, , was released in the U.S. in September 2016, and in October 2016 in the U.K.. Feely's memoirs and short stories have been published in literary magazines including The Sun, Lullwater Review, Provincetown Magazine, Potomac Review, and The Griffin, and the anthology Enhanced Gravity. In 2006, Feely received an Artist Fellowship from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her novel in progress, The Trials of Serra Blue. Later that year the completed novel won the annual James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship of $10,000, out of 594 applicants. Feely's The Wall: A Memoir, won the 2010 American Independent Writers Award for Best Personal Essay. In 2010, she co-edited Confessions: Fact or Fiction?, an anthology mixing memoirs with short fiction, and published it via Chrysalis Editorial. Confessions made a St. Louis best-sellers list, and was a finalist for USA Book News best anthology of 2011.
