Our Team
Meet the dedicated members of Housing Hub’s staff and its board of directors!
Julie Keel, Executive Director
Julie is the Executive Director of Housing Hub. Julie has made Grundy County, TN, her home for the past 17 years serving in various capacities with Mountain T.O.P., a housing nonprofit focused on housing restoration and repair. During her tenure at Mountain T.O.P., Julie connected the non-profit with other social service agencies, collaborating on a wide variety of housing-related projects, and secured housing resources for its service area.
Julie is certified as a USDA 502 loan packager and in Nonprofit Leadership from the Center for Nonprofit Management. She also has a Doctor of Ministry in Organizational Leadership.
The inspiring people and places in the South Cumberland area of Appalachia fuel her passion for the intersection of housing affordability and community development. Housing Hub is grateful to have Julie’s passion and experience in the Plateau community to implement our important mission.
Lee Limbird, Chair
Lee Limbird, Chair of the Board of Directors, is committed to the mission of the Housing Hub to create new affordable housing on the Cumberland Plateau and ensure those who want and need safe and affordable housing are kept company as they navigate their readiness.
Lee spent her professional career as a scientist, teacher, and life-long learner. After 25 years on the faculty and in academic leadership at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, she joined the faculty at Meharry Medical College and, later, Fisk University. She is committed to mentoring future leaders.
Lee and her husband, Tom, moved to the mountain full-time in 2017. They enjoy engaging in outreach that enhances opportunities for those diminished by circumstances outside of their control. Lee is also a board member of the South Cumberland Community Fund and a regular volunteer at the Food Ministry at Morton Memorial Church.
In her free time, Lee enjoys making clay sculptures and garden pots and trying to create a garden deer don’t enjoy first. Together, she and Tom enjoy the warmth of the community and the sheer fun of pickleball.
Robert Willems, Vice Chair
Approximately thirty-five years ago, Bob had the opportunity to volunteer, along with the youth group from his church in south Mississippi as an adult leader which brought him into contact with the ministry called Mountain T.O.P. The relationship grew stronger and stronger over the years.
Once his twenty years serving in the Navy concluded, Bob and his wife Mary Margaret moved to the South Cumberland Plateau. They settled down in the town of Tracy City on the shores of the middle lake of Littell Lakes. After his wife lost her bout with cancer, Bob took some time and eventually went back to school at Asbury Theological Seminary studying the Bible and Theology.
He has a passion for home construction and has served in a number of positions with the ministry and has become part of the fabric of the South Cumberland Plateau.
Mike Keen, Secretary-Treasurer
A Nashville native, Mike made Sewanee his home after a brief 40-year sidetrack in Florida. He is a retired electrical engineer (B.S. from Tennessee Tech and M.S. from University of Florida) and has held various leadership positions at major technology companies. He enjoys bringing a solution-oriented approach to addressing the needs of our community here on the mountain.
He and his wife, Celia, helped found the non-profit, Colombia Kids, and he is involved in many local community outreach projects. He loves being outside in nature and continually finishing their new house. Mike is also proud member of the Sewanee Guild of Change Ringers.