Who is Russell Keen, the Georgia Regents’ pick to succeed Brooks Keel as Augusta University president?
While he lacks the formal medical and research training of his soon-to-be predecessor, Keen and Keel have much in common, including close ties to metro Augusta.
Both grew up in Augusta, about two decades apart, and were the first in their families to graduate college.
Keen graduated from Lakeside High School in 1994, then Georgia Southern University in 1999 with a bachelor of business administration in finance.
The Augusta Press obtained his curriculum vitae and letter of application shortly after the University System Board of Regents announced June 14 that Keen was the board’s sole finalist for president. He’ll take office after Keel retires June 30.
According to the Regents’ office of legal affairs, Keen was one of 43 candidates to apply for the position.
Three in leadership on AU’s medical side – at the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Cancer Center and Wellstar MCG – said the regents made a fine choice.
Medical College of Georgia Dean David Hess said he worked closely with Keen during weekly three-hour meetings as fellow members of Keel’s cabinet. Many of the meetings involved AU Medical Center’s merger with Wellstar, he said.
Keen is “very supportive of the Medical College of Georgia and of our research,” Hess said.
Honest, intelligent and capable, Keen also has a green thumb and is known to slip bags of homegrown beans in his neighbors’ mailboxes, Hess said.
“He’s very honest and a person of great integrity and faith. There’s no pretense about Russell,” Hess said.
Georgia Southern
As a Georgia Southern undergrad, Keen served as Student Government Association president and by 2001 had become the university’s director of annual giving. From 2002-2004, he acted as its Atlanta Regional Development director.
His and Keel’s paths collided in 2010, when Keel was named president of Georgia Southern.
Keen then served as its director of governmental relations, a title he held till 2011, when he was named GSU vice president of government relations and community engagement.
Hess said Keen’s longstanding close relationships with state legislators and the regents have and will continue to benefit the university.
“Russell is really good at government relations, and he knows everybody in Atlanta,” he said. “The legislative help is really important, because thanks to him and Dr. Keel, we’ve gotten an increase in our funding.”
In the government relations role, Keen’s resume said he strategized with Keel and external stakeholders to move football to the Bowl subdivision, develop a shooting sports complex and secure $10 million for a student health center.
Georgia Regents
In July 2015, a year after he obtained a master of education in higher education administration from Georgia Southern, Keen returned to Augusta, to what was then known as Georgia Regents University.
As Keel was named president, Keen was named executive vice president for administration and chief of staff to the president.
The pair knew there were challenges ahead.
“Upon my arrival in 2015, the financial outlook for the university was uncertain due to five years of declining enrollments, overspending and a lackluster fundraising culture,” Keen wrote in his letter of application.
Keen said he brought forward “conservative, performance-based budgeting techniques” which have increased the university’s cash reserves by $35 million, or 112%, erased a $1 million athletics deficit, grown enrollment and increased fundraising.
At AU, Keen’s list of his accomplishments include changing the name of Georgia Regents University to Augusta University and implementing a comprehensive rebranding campaign.
Within his first few weeks, Keen said he created enrollment dashboards to grow enrollment. The strategy paid off in Fall 2023, when AU welcomed the largest freshman and graduate student classes in history. Enrollment, up cumulatively over 26% since 2015, now stands at 10,546, he said.
His other accomplishments include improving the Office of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement, which raised over $162 million from 2016-2023, and growing the university’s total endowment to $355 million, Keen wrote.
In 2019, Keen earned a doctor of education in higher education management at the University of Georgia. His dissertation was “Presidents Assuming Office During Times of Fiscal Strain.”
Medical College of Georgia
At AU, Keen took on a role under Keel he’d not formally held before, in Augusta University Health System, which included AU Medical Center and AU Medical Associates. He provided leadership in the areas of revenue cycles, credentialing and scheduling during health system leadership changes, Keen wrote.
Jorge Cortes, director of the Georgia Cancer Center, said Keen has a great passion for all the institutions within AU and a deep understanding of the needs of faculty, students and the community.
“I think it gives us a great opportunity to succeed,” Cortes said. “He’s been here for a while, so that gives me great confidence that there will not only be great continuity, but progress as well.”
Under Keen, Cortes said he is looking forward to AU becoming a “national powerhouse” as multiple AU units focus on advancing their efforts and research.
“I want to see his vision of getting us there,” Cortes said. “He has been a big champion of promoting the cancer center as a priority, not only within [AU] and the state, but also nationally. So I’m really looking forward to working with him on getting us there.”
Cortes said one of Keen’s best qualities is his ability to listen to others and take their feedback into account. “He is a good listener and he will pay attention,” he said.
The partnership with Wellstar Health System, which was formalized just last year, actually began in 2016 when Wellstar allowed Medical College of Georgia students to do clinical rotations, Keen said in his application. He was also directly involved in negotiating the partnership, and actively engaged in the ongoing transition, Keen said.
Charles Howell, the CEO of Augusta University Medical Associates and now Wellstar MCG, said Keen’s heavy involvement in AU’s negotiations allowed the two institutions to seamlessly merge and provide a broader possible outreach for MCG.
“That didn’t just happen overnight. It took many years,” Howell said. “It will give us the opportunity to make the Medical College of Georgia well-known to every citizen in the state, which I don’t think it is right now.”
Howell said Keen has demonstrated as Keel’s chief of staff his ability to truly connect with others and take local opinions and concerns into account.
“I think Dr. Keen was instrumental in helping make [Keel] successful,” he said. “He’s a great listener, and he’ll have the community’s interest in mind.”
Research goals
Keen’s resume said he co-chaired the strategic planning process that charted a path in 2022 for AU to achieve a Carnegie Research 1 designation. The university far exceeds research funding requirements, but falls short of graduating at least 70 doctoral students for the designation, he wrote the regents.
To achieve the prestigious designation, Keen said he’ll relentlessly pursue resources to recruit faculty, create research space and maintain “a culture of accountability,” where research fills the entire campus.
“Under my leadership, AU will be a destination for collaboration, innovation and groundbreaking translational biomedical research,” he wrote. “AU will be known for researchers and clinicians who take their findings from the research benches to the bedside, saving and improving the lives of our patients.”
