This Is The Panhandle

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