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This is the PanhandleAuthor: Amarillo Area Foundation
The top 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle is filled with amazing people and places. This podcast will introduce you to those people as they share their stories of how they are making their communities better. Language: en Genres: Places & Travel, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Next Chapter at Amarillo Area Foundation with Keralee Clay
Episode 1
Sunday, 11 January, 2026
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 "long and windy road" back to the Texas Panhandle—and the leadership journey that brought her to the Foundation's 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—something she also sees in the Panhandle during disasters and hard times. After starting a family, she and her husband made the "step-down" 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—something Keralee now aims to continue through culture-building, collaboration, and long-term systems work. The conversation also highlights the Foundation's strategic shift toward big, complex quality-of-life challenges like broadband access/digital equity and childcare as infrastructure. Keralee explains why these aren't problems you can "grant-cycle" your way out of—and why convening, partnerships, and systemic change are essential. Looking ahead, she shares her priorities as CEO: listening, questioning assumptions, strengthening the Foundation's role across all 26 counties, and helping donors build place-based philanthropic legacies—especially as the "transfer of wealth" becomes a daily reality for many families.
