Keely Gilliland

Keely Gilliland joined the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga team in March of 2020. In her role, she is primarily focused on board and staff engagement, supporting the implementation of the Foundation’s strategic plan and goals, and facilitation of strategic initiatives of the Foundation. The strategic initiatives work enables Keely to partner with other Foundation staff and community stakeholders on projects such as the Hamilton County Eviction Prevention Initiative, and collaborative efforts to increase fairness and transparency in civil debt collection at the local and State level. 

With more than a decade of experience working with Chattanooga area nonprofits and community groups, Keely has often served as a “Jill of all trades” filling administration, operations management, human resources, and finance roles. In addition to serving 501(c)(3) organizations, her prior experience includes operations and finance management for a 501(c)(4) organization, as well as a political action committee. Keely’s work with nonprofits is driven by the knowledge that every day people have the ability to create real and lasting change in their communities. Professionally, she looks for ways to support the day-to-day needs of organizations that facilitate that community-led work. 

Keely holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Lee University and is certified in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace through the University of South Florida. She sits on the United for ALICE Tennessee Research Advisory Committee. 

Keely loves to travel and tries to spend as much time as possible reading, expanding her cooking skills, and hiking. She and her husband live in the beautiful historic Orchard Knob neighborhood in Chattanooga with their two cats.