For the second straight year, MTSU professor Beverly Keel, chair of the university’s highly touted Department of Recording Industry, will be among the honorees receiving a Women in Music City Award from The Nashville Business Journal.

Beverly Keel

Launched last year, the awards stem from The NBJ soliciting nominations of women working in the music business “who are making a creative and economic impact on the industry.” A judging committee of women music professionals from Los Angeles and New York City reviewed and scored the nominees, and an NBJ committee chose this year’s 26 winners, according to an NBJ blog posting.

Beginning her third year of leading the recording industry department within the College of Media and Entertainment, Keel continues to build partnerships between MTSU and music industry leaders to bring in accomplished guest lecturers and instructors. The former music industry executive and award-winning journalist also works with faculty to provide students with hands-on learning and career opportunities.

An MTSU alumna, Keel continues to work as a journalist, writing for The Tennessean and Parade magazine, as well as other publications, and serves as a music industry consultant. She is a co-founder of Change the Conversation, a coalition created with Leslie Fram and Tracy Gershon in 2014 to help women in the country music industry.

Keel is a graduate of Leadership Music, Leadership Nashville and Leadership Middle Tennessee and serves on the boards of the Music Makes Us and The Women’s Fund. She was inducted into the Metro Nashville Public Schools Hall of Fame in May.

All honorees will be recognized at an awards dinner at the Omni Nashville Hotel Sept. 24 and in a special printed NBJ publication Sept. 25.

Read the full list of winners at http://ow.ly/SjhON.

— Jimmy Hart (jimmy.hart@mtsu.edu)