Marla Keenan

Hello! I'm Marla Keenan, nonprofit leader, strategist, and coach.

A person’s leadership journey is always evolving, and mine has certainly taken many twists and turns. In my first career, I worked in fashion, a perfect match for my interest in international business and marketing. I was just a few blocks from the World Trade Center on 9/11 and it changed everything for me. Like many Americans, I re-evaluated what I was doing with my life. I started my transition to the nonprofit world, hoping that my business know-how would be of value to a cause larger than myself. A master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon, volunteering with organizations to handle their operations and marketing, taking a job I was passionate about but that paid me half what I had made before grad school… every moment of the long slog to the non-profit community was worth it.

For the past 11 years, I have been the managing director at Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), where I lead a team of passionate program, communications, and operations staff. I've traveled the world, seeing the tragedy of war close up and the remarkable resilience of both war’s victims and the civil society that supports them. I’ve helped shape our innovative programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Mali, Israel, Jordan, Nepal, Nigeria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

Let me be honest here, though. The successes took a while. I started at CIVIC shortly after the founder, a friend named Marla Ruzicka, was killed in Iraq. The challenges--and pressure--of bringing her vision to fruition were enormous. The new executive director (also a young woman) and I were on our own, with one $60k grant, no strategy on paper, a relatively inexperienced board, and the tragedy of Marla’s death still fresh for everyone involved. But we never took no for an answer. We made it work. CIVIC became known for its innovative way of working and its ability to do more than most organizations with far fewer resources. We’ve been called the “mouse that roared.”

The executive director and I 'grew up' together at CIVIC, testing so many approaches to leadership, working our way through management obstacles, and failing often on everything from strategy to planning to hire before ultimately finding success. When she told me she was leaving in 2014, I had no idea how hard a leadership transition would be. I was about to find out!

Onboarding a new ED was incredibly challenging, particularly in a time of growth and expansion for the organization. I’ve always known the importance of leadership but was now experiencing first-hand how deeply a change in leadership can affect an organization and its team.

I decided this was an opportunity. So, I took a three-month sabbatical with the goal of learning all I could about leadership. I came back to the organization with a plan for developing a strong talent management and leadership culture. (Oh yes, it’s working.)

Who knew that I’d find my passion in leadership coaching? With my certification in hand, I’ve developed my own unique coaching practice focused on building strong nonprofit leaders for the future. I take pride in empowering leaders to make good decisions and become even better at what they do (and happier doing it).

This is my calling. I look forward to working with you!