Drake Keeler will serve as the Lynn and Dana Roper Visiting Lecturer from January to May 2024. Keeler is a 2022 journalism graduate of the CoJMC and a content creator at Hurrdat Sports. As part of his lectureship, he will lead and advise the college's newest student involvement organization, the Multicultural Students in Media Club.
While at the university, Keeler advocated for students of color on campus and in the Lincoln community. In October 2020, he led an online project for the Daily Nebraskan focused on telling Black stories on campus centered around Black Lives Matter.
He also helped launch The Daily Nebraskan Diversity and Inclusion Board to foster more inclusive coverage and a more diverse newsroom. The establishment of the board was an extension of the Black Lives Matter project and a way for Keeler to make a lasting impact.
Keeler plans to take what he's learned from being a sports writer, first at Hail Varsity and now at Hurrdat, coupled with his experience building the Diversity and Inclusion Board, as he's putting the club together and working with students in Unlimited Sports.
"One of the things we're taught in school is how media is constantly changing and will continue to change throughout your entire career," Keeler said. "And in a dynamic field like media, finding people you can go to, who support you, is crucial when you're part of an underrepresented community."
Keeler hopes the club will be a place for underrepresented students to connect, build a diverse community and use their voices to foster change in media and mass communications.
"A big part of this club is going to be building the community because in Nebraska, those spaces can be hard to find," Keeler said. "It's important to me that I'm able to help establish that and I'm really looking forward to it."
The Lynn and Dana Roper Fund encourages and rewards sports writing among journalism students by supporting a visiting sportswriter to work with students at the college and sponsoring the annual sports writing contest. Keeler won the Roper Sports Writing Competition while a student in the CoJMC.
