Columbia University, Director of Military and Veteran Community Engagement at the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration
Breakout Session Topic: Serving Those Who Serve

David Keefe develops capacity and community building initiatives for the military-connected community on campus and regionally. Prior to this role, Dave was the Senior Assistant Dean of Student Veteran Initiatives at Columbia’s School of General Studies, where he centralized resources and developed programs for student veterans. Dave is also an award-winning artist, educator, and anthropologist. In 2011, he co-founded Frontline Arts, formerly known as Combat Paper NJ, a national nonprofit that connects and builds communities through socially engaged art practices rooted in printmaking and papermaking, with a flagship program that teaches the craft of handmade paper from military uniforms. From 2001-2009, Sergeant Keefe served in the United States Marine Corps infantry as a light armored reconnaissance scout, and from 2006-2007 he completed a tour of duty on the Euphrates River in Iraq as a riverine scout. Dave holds an MS in narrative medicine from Columbia University, an MFA in studio art from Montclair State University, a BFA from the University of Delaware, and is currently a PhD student in applied anthropology at Columbia University Teachers College where he works with national and international military-connected communities, especially with disengaged and disconnected populations of former-military members, to explore the ambiguity of the veteran narrative.