Cornerstone Donors: Beverly Keel

Beverly Keel
Senior Vice President
Artist and Media Relations
Universal Music Group

Beverly Keel is senior vice president of artist and media relations for Universal Music Group Nashville. She was previously a recording industry professor at MTSU, where she also served as director of the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies.

Before joining UMG Nashville, she was also a nationally recognized music journalist who has covered Nashville news for more than 15 years. She served as a Nashville correspondent for People magazine for a decade and was also entertainment editor of American Profile and celebrity columnist at the Tennessean. She has written for such magazines as InStyle, New York, USA Today and Entertainment Weekly. A former music industry columnist for the Nashville Scene and Nashville Banner newspapers, her journalism has received awards from the Associated Press and the Association of American Newsweeklies. She received the Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism.

She serves on the board of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, serves on the Nashville Mayor's Music Council and is the past president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch. She has served on the boards of Leadership Music and the Recording Academy.

Keel has been a commentator on country music personalities and events for such media outlets as National Public Radio, Bravo, VH-1, CBS, ABC, the Associated Press, the Washington Post and CMT.

A Nashville native, she earned her bachelor's degree from Middle Tennessee State University and her master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is married to Ronnie Steine and is step-mother to David Steine, 20.