[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20542]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO DR. BEVERLY KEEPERS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
special and valued educator in my hometown of Louisville, KY, Dr. 
Beverly Keepers. Dr. Keepers has devoted her time and energy for the 
past 34 years to the educational growth of the Commonwealth's youth.
  Dr. Keepers is a native of Shively, KY where she attended McFerren 
Elementary and graduated from Western High school. Following high 
school, she entered Western Kentucky University and earned a Bachelor 
of Arts Degree in English with minors in theatre arts and education. 
With her degree in hand, she started her career at Butler High School 
teaching English, theater, journalism, and photography.
  Dr. Keepers' many talents in the classroom were recognized and in 
1988 she accepted the assistant principal position at Southern High 
School. One year later she became the principal at the Youth Performing 
Arts School, YPAS, in Louisville. While this position was challenging 
in and of itself, Dr. Keepers was offered a second principalship at 
Louisville's duPont Manual High School. She accepted the offer and 
became the first woman in higher administration in Manual's history. In 
the fall of 1991, she began her dual roles as principal at two 
different schools, and hit the ground running.
  During her years at Manual and YPAS, Dr. Keepers has earned the 
respect of students and teachers alike. She has made the campuses 
safer, kept the schools up to date with the latest technologies, strove 
to make student's voices heard, and worked hard to continue the long 
standing tradition of excellence at Manual High School and YPAS.
  If all this work were not enough, Dr. Keepers was recently a student 
herself. She went back to school in 2000 and completed her doctorate in 
educational leadership and organizational development at my alma mater, 
the University of Louisville, where she was named to the dean's list 
and was recognized with an Outstanding Student award.
  Dr. Keepers' hectic schedule does not end when the school bell rings 
either. While she has shown tireless dedication by working 70-hour 
weeks, she remains devoted to her family: husband Jerry, and their two 
daughters, Tiffany and Lauren.
  While most would say her contributions to the Louisville community 
are more than enough, she is quite active outside of school. She serves 
as a board member of the Kentucky Derby Festival and Kosair Children's 
Hospital and has participated in Leadership Louisville and the Bingham 
Fellows.
  Today I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring and recognizing Dr. 
Beverly Keepers as a truly remarkable member of the Louisville 
community.

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