Keith Kehlbeck

Keith Kehlbeck is a writer, historian, and marketing consultant with clients in the hospitality, nonprofit, and publishing sectors. 

He has served as Executive Director for Select Registry, Distinguished Inns of North America, and as CEO for DiRoNA: Distinguished Restaurants of North America—national and international hospitality member organizations with historic ties in the industry. He also was a director for Southwest Michigan First, an award-winning economic development firm in Kalamazoo. Through his LLC, K2 Consulting, he has extensive writing, editing, research, strategic marketing, and communications experience, with clientele including Schuler’s Restaurant & Pub, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Battle Creek Community Foundation, Michigan Barn Preservation Network, Inns Magazine, and individual inn properties.

Over the years, he has developed diverse leadership and communications experience working with public and private stakeholders, thriving in deadline-driven environments and demonstrating the ability to transcend personality differences to achieve exceptional shared results. He excels at consensus building around a strategic vision and specializes in client service and niche audiences. 

Keith obtained his Bachelor’s degree studying history at Wabash College in Indiana. At the age of 10, his family took a trip to Washington, D.C., sparking what would become a life-long interest in the Civil War. There was no turning back; since that trip Keith’s passion for studying the Civil War led him to write Gone to God: A Civil War Family’s Ultiate Sacrifice, a nonfiction story told with diaries and letters written by soldiers and their family members, published in 2013 and chosen as one of the top Civil War books for that year. He is currently completing three additional manuscripts—one a biography of a legendary Canadian restaurateur—for expected publication in 2021-2022.

Keith is also an avid wine collector who loves spending time with his wife, Ali, at their home in the Northern Neck of Virginia.