Christine D. Keels
Parole, probation officer with multiple agencies who wrote religious books, knitted blankets for children at St. Jude’s
By Frederick N. Rasmussen
Christine D. Keels, who held parole and probation positions with state and federal agencies and was a leader in United Methodist Church affairs, died Oct. 7 of pneumonia at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She was 68 and lived in Lutherville.
“She was dedicated, committed, a very strong leader and a friend and colleague who always went above and beyond,” said Eartha Coleman, who worked with Ms. Keels at the Washington, D.C. based Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency.
“She was compassionate and believed that people deserve a second chance and that they can change,” Ms. Coleman said. “She appreciated the differences in people and nurtured them when she saw their strengths.”
Christine Dean, daughter of Eddie Dean Sr., a truck driver, and Mattie Brown Dean, a homemaker, was born in West Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Memphis.
After graduating in 1972 from Hamilton High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1976 in sociology from Boston College, and later a master’s degree in the administration of justice from American University in Washington.
For more than 45 years, Ms. Keels held parole and probation supervisory and managerial positions as well as community supervision, community justice programs and rehabilitative services for state and federal agencies.
She began her career as a parole and probation officer in Virginia and then joined the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services’ Division of Parole and Probation as a senior probation and parole agent.
In 2000, she began working in Washington with the newly established federal agency Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency in its community supervision services division.
She joined the agency’s Office of Community Justice Programs in 2004.
During the presidency of Barack Obama, Ms. Keels was detailed to the Department of Justice’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
“She worked to advance its goals of datadriven, evidence-based, ‘smart on crime’ prisoner reentry programs,” according to a biographical profile submitted by her family.
Ms. Keels was involved with programs designed to “help returning citizens identify barriers, devise solutions to these barriers, to encourage them to live a more positive and productive life in the community,” wrote Howard Moore, a colleague.
During her time with the DOJ, she worked with what is today the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
From 2017 until her death, Ms. Keels worked for Court Services in its Office of Legislative Intergovernmental and Public Affairs.
“Ms. Keels utilized the project management training she received through the agency to assist me and other staff with the planning and completion of assigned projects,” wrote Cedric Hendricks, an associate director at Court Services, in a tribute.
“She helped out staff track activities, meet deadlines, and assess outcomes,” he wrote. “She was always clear, accurate, and professional in her internal and external communications. Most of all, she was polite, caring and an inspiration to all of us who worked with her.”
At Court Services, she worked with the Rivers Correctional Institution in North Carolina, re-entry programs for women and redesigned a record system, according to the profile.
Ms. Keels “dedicated her life to Christ early on and attended church with her family,” family members said.
Ms. Keels met her future husband, the Rev. Dr. Bernard “Skip” Keels, shortly after he had finished seminary.
They married in 1978 and moved to Baltimore and he began preaching at Saint Mark United Methodist Church, Christ United Methodist Church, and later Newark United Methodist Church in Newark, Delaware.
In addition, he was dean of the Morgan State University Memorial Chapel.
Ms. Keels was a laywoman, author, orator, community organizer and advocate for children.
She was an officer in United Methodist Women and worked on education issues in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Other issues she was involved in with the church included teen pregnancy intervention and prevention.
She and her husband were the authors of “Exodus: The Journey to Freedom,” which chronicles the journeys of African American Methodists in America.
In addition, she was the author of “Barely There: The Story of My Life,” a book aimed at helping children prepare for life’s challenges.
She knitted blankets for children who were hospitalized St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
“She was very faithful, very driven and very socially conscious. She just cared a lot about people. Period,” said Shirley L. Faulcon, a friend of 40 years.
“Once she put her hands onto something, she was in it completely and saw it through to the end,” Ms. Faulcon said. “She was very dedicated, highly respected and unbelievably intelligent.”
She and her husband welcomed Morgan State students, faculty and staff into their home for “advice and a meal,” family members said. She was an active member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
As part of her work with the United Methodist Church she travelled to Africa, Asia, South and Central America and the Caribbean, filling her home with artifacts from her journeys.
Services were held Saturday at Morgan State University.
In addition to her husband of 45 years, she is survived by three brothers, Eddie Dean Jr. and Willie Dean, of Memphis, and Joenathan Dean, of Princeton, New Jersey; and many nieces and nephews.