Amanda Keller: B.A. Philosophy, 2009The College of Arts and Sciences annual alumni awards highlight the diverse talents, professional accomplishments, and community service of our alumni. The Distinguished Young Alumni Award honors alumni ages 40 or younger for significant accomplishments in industry and/or their career field or for service in the College. In 2020, we recognized two winners in this category: Amanda Keller and Michael Chambers II.

Amanda Keller is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Alabama in 2006. She is the Founding Director of the Magic City Acceptance Center (MCAC), a direct-service social supportive space for the LGBTQ community in Birmingham that opened in the spring of 2014. In her five years as director, she has been instrumental in expanding services to over 1,060 local LGBTQ and strongly allied youth, ages 13-24.

Amanda also manages Family Matters: LGBTQ Youth Perspectives, a photography exhibition by Carolyn Sherer. Family Matters premiered at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in April 2014, and was selected as a Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery finalist in 2016. Prior to MCAC, Amanda served as Finance Director at Birmingham AIDS Outreach.

Amanda serves on the Board of the Children’s Policy Council, and Mayor Woodfin’s LGBTQ Advisory Board. She was also an honoree of AL.com’s 2017 “Women Who Shape the State”, one of the 2018 Birmingham Business Journal’s “Women to Watch,” and a member of the Leadership Birmingham Class of 2020.