A Passion for Freedom

By Samantha Webb

A School of Journalism and Mass Communications alumnus had dedicated his career to helping formerly repressed countries develop into democracies. Seeing freedom break out across Eastern and Central Europe after the Soviet Union collapsed, Brian Keeter, who earned his Master of Mass Communication degree in 2000, felt a sense of responsibility.

“ We’ve enjoyed freedom for more than 200 years in the United States and I wanted to do what I could, if in only a small way, to help an emerging democracy as it transitioned away from a repressive, communist regime toward a free society.”

Keeter, who was working on Capitol Hill as a congressional press secretary, decided to take a break and volunteer with Freedom House in February 1994. An organization funded through private foundations, individuals and democratic governments, Freedom House supports and promotes democratic change around the world. Through Freedom House, Keeter spent three months in Warsaw, Poland with a non-governmental organization working with local governments and assisting on communications training programs. His focus was mainly in the political realm and working with reform-oriented parties.

It was a fascinating time to be there and he was able to see what a repressive communist government can do to its people, taking away individual liberties and repressing individual thought. From this experience, Keeter developed a passion for “helping people who were yearning to be free.” After he left Poland, he returned to his job on Capitol Hill but still wanted to help other countries.

In July 1995, Keeter began working full-time at the International Republican Institute. One of four non-profit organizations created to carry out the work of the National Endowment for Democracy, the IRI promotes freedom and democracy around the world. For the next three years, he worked in Mexico, Haiti and other former Soviet countries such as Ukraine assisting in training and development programs. He observed many political elections, worked with democracy activists and helped to build institutes of democracy such as NGOs and political parties.

After leaving the IRI, he still continued volunteering. While at graduate school at the University of South Carolina, he spent a summer in Riga, Latvia working with a government agency on one of the nation’s most important issues, naturalization.

Keeter became the Director of Public Affairs at Auburn University in 2006 but still has a passion to help emerging democracies. Most recently, he was an election observer for the presidential election in Afghanistan in 2009.