2024 Break the Cycle Host Committee Members
Our Host Committee & Event Leadership is a group of dedicated community leaders who support SOME and our annual Break the Cycle Gala by promoting the event to a wide audience and raise critical funding for programs and services for clients. We are grateful for their endless dedication and support of SOME.
Keenan Austin Reed, Chair | The Alpine Group
Keenan, a Capitol Hill veteran, has spent the past decade guiding and advising principals in all levels of government. In her role as Chief of Staff, she served as the Congressman's top policy advisor and an advisor to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where she crafted strategies to elevate the Congressman’s work as a national leader on climate change, environmental justice, and rural broadband. She also led McEachin’s work as the Whip of the Congressional Black Caucus, building consensus around the Caucus’ priorities and advancing its agenda with House leadership.
In 2018, Keenan co-founded the Black Women’s Congressional Alliance (BWCA), a membership organization of more than 300 bipartisan and bicameral Black women Hill staffers. She has led dozens of professional development briefings, events and webinars to inform staffers about new career opportunities, provided a platform to elevate their profiles to the broader Capitol Hill community, and pushed growth in diverse hiring in the United States House and Senate. BWCA has been featured in the Majority Leaders Podcast, The Brown Girl’s Guide to Politics Podcast, VICE, Essence Magazine, and Washingtonian.
In addition to her work at Alpine, she is also Advisory Council Chair at GlobalWIN, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s (CBCF) Corporate Advisory Council, Vice Chair of SOME’s (So Others May Eat) Corporate Advisory Board, and Vice Chair of the Women’s Congressional Policy Institute. In May of 2021, Austin Reed testified before the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. The focus of her testimony was recruiting, maintaining, and empowering diverse congressional staff.
A proud Rattler, Keenan received her bachelor’s degree and MBA from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU). She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.