Chickasaw Nation Secretary of Family Services Jay Keel announced his plans to retire, effective Dec. 31, 2025, after more than three decades serving youth with the tribe and overseeing the expansion of mental health and violence prevention services.
“Jay Keel is an exemplary servant leader and a steadfast man of faith,” said Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. “He has dedicated his life to advocacy and guidance for young people and Chickasaw families. His work has reinforced the foundation of our tribe, and the Chickasaw people are stronger because of him.”
A Chickasaw citizen, Keel said his upbringing and faith led him to the profession of helping youth when he started with the tribe.
“When I came to faith, it really struck me that I needed to commit my life to helping young people not make the same mistakes that I made,” he said.
Through his faith, Keel said he began to recognize the role a strong family had played in his life and wanted to help establish support for youth who didn’t have the same advantages as well as help to strengthen families in any way he could.
“I was cognizant of the fact that I was blessed with a great family,” he said. “You’ve probably heard this said, but a nation is only as strong as its families are.”
Keel served as a youth pastor at Ada First Baptist Church for 10 years and had planned with his wife, Donna, to move their family to another community and work on a church staff. Amid them praying and deciding on their future, Keel’s father suggested that he first speak to Governor Anoatubby.
Governor Anoatubby said he wanted to begin a youth services department and shared his vision to instill in Chickasaw youth the value of their heritage and what it means to be Chickasaw.
Keel began work in the new department as the tribe’s first director of youth services in 1993. He set to work building a staff that shared his passion for enhancing the lives of youth and protecting families. As his staff developed and funding was secured for the new department, Keel said they began developing youth programs for the tribe in a more comprehensive manner.
Over the years, mental health became incorporated into purview of youth services, which would eventually become the Chickasaw Nation Department of Family Services. Keel and his team worked to eradicate the stigma that often surrounds mental health services.
“I think Governor Anoatubby was a pioneer, a forerunner, in terms of mental health services,” Keel said. According to Keel, the Chickasaw Nation’s systems to address mental health and substance abuse were already advanced compared to other health care systems.
“When no one else was thinking about it, he was leading at a state and national level in terms of addressing mental wellness,” Keel said.
He said Governor Anoatubby gave mental health “an equal place at the table in terms of funding, strategic planning and priorities for the tribe.”
Among the initiatives and programs Keel has helped oversee are the medical family therapy program, Chikasha Anokfilli (thinking Chickasaw), Strong Foundation, youth clubs, camps, clinics and academies, the Chickasaw Children’s Village, outpatient and residential treatment, child welfare/foster care, child support services and the office of violence prevention.
During this time, Keel also became involved in shaping mental health and family policy in the state and country.
He is a member of the Inter-Tribal Council Tribal Services Committee and serves as the Oklahoma City area tribal representative for the Indian Health Service National Tribal Advisory Committee on Behavioral Health. He has served as president of the board for Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy and Caring for Ada’s Children. He is past chairman of the board for Chickasaw Nation Head Start and board of trustees for the Chickasaw Foundation.
He has previously served on the boards of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Oklahoma; Prevent Child Abuse Oklahoma; McCalls Chapel School; Fellowship of Christian Athletes advisory group; Ada Family Crisis Center; Oklahoma City University Addiction Prevention Program; Oklahoma Baptist University Native American Advisory Team; Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin’s Children of Incarcerated Parents Task Force; Ada Area Chamber of Commerce; and he was appointed by Oklahoma Governors Frank Keating and Brad Henry to serve on the board of directors for the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs.
He intends to continue helping to guide policy as long as he is able through board memberships and open dialogue.
“I certainly will always be committed to those issues and want to help out in any way that I can,” he said.
Keel said he foresees a bright future for family services at the Chickasaw Nation.
“I have no doubt that this is going to happen, but I would just like to see the tribe continue to support those programs,” he said.
He also wants to stay engaged with the Chickasaw Nation.
“I plan on investing a lot of time with my family and looking for the next season of ministry,” he said.
Keel and his wife plan to move to North Texas to be around their daughters, Allison and Natalie.
His son, Wyatt, currently works as a senior supervising producer at the Chickasaw Nation Department of Administration.
Keel said his time at the Chickasaw Nation reminds him of the Bible verse Ephesians 3:20, which says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
“I came here just wanting to work with youth, and this became far more than I could ever imagine,” he said. “My heart is filled with gratitude. There’s no place like the Chickasaw Nation. There’s no place like the department of family services. We’ve been so blessed to have such a great number of incredible people on this team. Governor Anoatubby is the best leader I’ve ever known, and he’s an even better person.”