Richard Keelor, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Health Designs International, a consulting and training organization specializing in building healthy communities and organizations that is headquartered in McLean, Va. HDI also provides consulting and technical legal research as an expert witness in liability cases related to recreational activities and competitive sports.
Richard has served at all levels in the health promotion and physical fitness profession during his career, including 10 years as Director of Program Development for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. In 2008, he was awarded the Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award (click on 2008 box in the middle of this page and scroll down to read citation).
He began his career as football and wrestling coach of Beverly Hills High School where in 2010 he was the first to be honored with the Beverly Hills High School Athletic Alumni’s Polaris Award for his lasting contribution to the school’s championship athletic program.
Richard has conducted more than 200 regional and national fitness and health promotion clinics, including four White House Sport Medicine Conferences. He has appeared on the “Today Show” and “Good Morning America,” among numerous other media appearances.
Richard’s interest in personal well-being led him to incorporate meditation as a fundamental health skill to empower groups and individuals achieve emotional balance and spiritual awareness. He has written a book of his own mediations called Holy Moments. An accomplished player of the Native American wood flute, he also has produced a CD of music and guided meditations.
“Meditation can open and balance the body’s natural healing powers,” he says. "It serves as a catalyst to integrate mind, body and spirit.”
Following his government service, Richard joined the Campbell Soup Co. as president of its National Institute for Health/Fitness and general manager of a new Campbell’s business unit. He led the development and implementation of the Campbell’s employee health/fitness program, which now has had more than 25 years of success.
Richard was recruited by the U.S. Sugar Association to serve as its CEO in an effort to assist the industry and its food and beverage partners to better communicate the role of sucrose in a healthy diet and to advance the fact that sugar in moderation is entirely consistent with healthy living.
Richard has a long interest in geriatric physiology and played a lead roll in amendments to the federal Older Americans Act, which provide for increased opportunities for the elderly to attain and maintain appropriate physical activity. He has testified at congressional hearings and before federal agencies on matters related to the role of physical activity in health promotion and disease prevention. Keelor also addressed the World Health Organization’s Tenth Annual Conference for the Prevention of Chronic Disease.
As co-founder of Be Active America, Keelor serves as one of the lead faculty in advocacy training workshops provided to educators, recreational professionals, and to business, industry and government officials. These workshops assist professional groups and individuals to better communicate with media, state, local and federal elected officials in order to advance the nation’s Healthy People 2020 goals. He was also the primary consultant in development of Be Active North Carolina, the first statewide initiative to promote grassroots physical activity advocacy.
Richard has conducted more than 200 regional and national fitness and sports clinics and has been a keynote speaker at four White House Sports Medicine Symposiums. Richard has served as a consultant to the governments of Japan, Germany, Norway, Portugal and Guatemala, and has lectured at various institutional symposiums and universities throughout Europe and Scandinavia.
He was awarded the U.S. Jaycees Healthy American Fitness Award in 1984, the highly coveted Winston Churchill Award of the United Kingdom for exceptional leadership in the health and fitness field, and the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from the International Association of Worksite Health Promotion. The National Association of Governor’s Councils on Physical Fitness and Sports honored Richard as the first recipient of the Glenn V. Swengros Memorial Award in honor of his ongoing national leadership in promotion of health and physical activity.
Keelor holds both a bachelor’s and master's degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation from California State University at Long Beach, where he was Athlete of the Year in 1959 and captain of the intercollegiate football team. In 1960, he won the Pacific Coast intercollegiate wrestling championship. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Education, with a minor in Business Administration, from the University of Southern California in 1974. He resides in McLean, Va. with his wife, Carolyn. He has three adult children and six granddaughters.
Dr. Richard Keelor receiving the 2008 PCPFS Lifetime Achievement Award from PCPFS chairman John Burke.