{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Next Chapter at Amarillo Area Foundation with Keralee Clay","description":"In this special edition of This Is the Panhandle, Broc Carter sits down with Amarillo Area Foundation CEO Keralee Clay for a wide-ranging conversation about her \u201clong and windy road\u201d back to the Texas Panhandle\u2014and the leadership journey that brought her to the Foundation\u2019s top role. Keralee shares her deep Panhandle roots, her unexpected pivot into vocal performance and opera, and the steep learning curves that shaped her: managing the Amarillo Civic Center at a young age, moving to New York City with everything she owned in a Ryder truck, and building a career that blended leadership, HR, operations, IT, and people development. Keralee reflects on living in New York through 9\/11 and how that season strengthened her belief in shared humanity\u2014something she also sees in the Panhandle during disasters and hard times. After starting a family, she and her husband made the \u201cstep-down\u201d move from NYC to Denver, then home to Amarillo for community, quality of life, and the support of family (and affordable childcare realities). Back in Amarillo, Keralee returned to the Civic Center before receiving a call from Clay Stribling that changed her path: joining the Amarillo Area Foundation first as Director of Operations, then advancing into senior leadership and ultimately CEO. She credits Clay with seeing potential in people and stretching them into new leadership spaces\u2014something Keralee now aims to continue through culture-building, collaboration, and long-term systems work. The conversation also highlights the Foundation\u2019s strategic shift toward big, complex quality-of-life challenges like broadband access\/digital equity and childcare as infrastructure. Keralee explains why these aren\u2019t problems you can \u201cgrant-cycle\u201d your way out of\u2014and why convening, partnerships, and systemic change are essential. Looking ahead, she shares her priorities as CEO: listening, questioning assumptions, strengthening the Foundation\u2019s role across all 26 counties, and helping donors build place-based philanthropic legacies\u2014especially as the \u201ctransfer of wealth\u201d becomes a daily reality for many families. ","author_name":"This is the Panhandle","author_url":"https:\/\/amarilloareafoundation.org","html":"