Lisa Keene, sometimes known as “the yearbook lady,” is the dual credit speech teacher along with being the Excalibur Yearbook and Crown Town Media web adviser.
Keene spends countless hours working with students to ensure that the yearbook and web is able to reach its full potential.
“I lead a team of students in basically managing a small business with an annual revenue of about $120,000,” Keene said. “They create a huge group project with 324 pages with about 20 coverage points per page. That’s literally thousands of contacts, and they do it on time and on budget with a new crop of students every year.”
After working as a yearbook publishing rep with 40 different staffs for years, Keene came to CPHS in 2011 to be a teacher.
“I realized that my favorite part of that job was getting to work with the yearbook students. When I had my own kids, I decided I didn’t want to travel so much,” Keene said.
Beyond publishing deadlines, Keene stays busy in her personal life.
“The biggest challenge I face every day is that I feel over stimulated sometimes throughout the day. This is a big, busy place with a lot of people and so much going on. I never feel like I’m done or even caught up,” Keene said. “I set my priorities every day to make sure that I at least complete what I need to get done. Some things just have to wait until the next day.”
Keene is also gearing up to publish her first book titled, “Yerd.” Keene’s young adult fiction novel is about a yearbook student who manages dyslexia while making her way through the peaks and valleys of high school. Keene said, “As the unknowing guardian of ancient secrets, Olivia’s Achilles Heel may just be her Ruby Slipper in this coming-of-age epic odyssey for spiritual and grammatical enlightenment.”
Keene won a 2022 Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so when I got the Lilly grant, I took the opportunity to actually make it happen.” The first book in the series of four is a freshman ELA anchor text based at the fictional Region High School.
