Meet Rob Keller

Rob Keller is currently retired but has been involved in Public Affairs and Crisis Communications for over 40 years.  He graduated from Evangel University (Springfield, MO) in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Television Journalism. He was a TV news reporter and anchor, a community relations officer for a police department, a television producer, conducted marketing and advertising for the U.S. Army, and worked multiple FEMA disasters in North Dakota to include floods, wildfires, snow storms and a Canadian Pacific railroad anhydrous ammonia spill. In addition, during his 26-year Army career, he was deployed on two public affairs missions to Iraq, five PIO missions to Ghana, Africa, and worked with twelve Killed In Action (KIA) soldiers and their families.

He was retired from the U.S. Army when he received a call from the ND Department of Emergency Services (NDDES) to return to full time PIO status to work a “small protest happening in southern Morton County that would probably fizzle out in 2-3 months.”  Nine months later he returned to retirement status.  During the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protest, Rob was lead Public Information Officer for the Morton County Sheriff’s Office and the ND Department of Emergency Services Joint Information Center.  Rob and his team of over 15 PIOs worked over 500 media engagements during the 234-day protest that garnished the attention of the world. 

Rob was a Deputy PIO for the ND COVID-19 response and helped form a 50-person Joint Information Center staff within two weeks that continued for almost two years.

He has been a FEMA Crisis Communication trainer for over 10 years having trained over 600 PIO practitioners to be “Crisis Ready.”

He is married with a very understanding wife, a son who is following in his footsteps as a career military man and a daughter who is a stay-at-home mom.  He has five grandchildren that now take up his entire time.  He is also an “adventure motorcycle rider” who has traveled on journeys across Canada to the Arctic Ocean, South America and everything in between.