Bill Keyes was elected to the UNC Board of Trustees in 2015 and was elected Secretary in 2017. He serves as chairman of the Committee on External Relations and as a member of the Committee on University Affairs, where he was previously vice chairman. He has also served on the Committee on Personnel.

Prior to his election to the Board of Trustees, Keyes served on the UNC Board of Visitors, the Graduate Education Advancement Board, the Board of Advisors of the School of Media and Journalism, the Board of Directors of the Media and Journalism Foundation, and the Advisory Board of the Leadership Institute. He recently joined the Senior Advisory Board of the UNC Institute of Politics. He is honored to have been tapped for the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Frank Porter Graham Honor Society.

Keyes is a native of Washington, NC but has worked in Washington, DC for nearly four decades. He has worked on Capitol Hill and served as a White House Senior Policy Advisor.  However, his most important work has been the establishment and direction of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, which serves some of America’s best and brightest African American male college students. Institute alumni have become Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, Truman Scholars, and the recipients of many other honors and awards.

For his extensive work in education, Keyes was presented the Mac A. Stewart Distinguished Award for Service by the Todd A. Bell National Resource Center at Ohio State University, the Dr. Asa G. Hilliard Model of Excellence Award from the College Board, and the Warrior Award at the International Colloquium on Black Males in Education.

Keyes and his wife, Lola, live in McLean, Virginia.