Judicial Experience

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Keel was elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2016 and declared elected in 2022 after running unopposed for re-election.

 

She served as judge of the 232nd District Court in Harris County from 1995 through 2016.  She served as the wiretap judge for the Second Administrative Judicial Region of Texas from 2009 through 2016.

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She has been board certified in criminal law since 1990.  

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Judge Keel has been a speaker at conferences and seminars for judges, lawyers, police officers, and licensed court interpreters.

 

Volunteering

 

Judge Keel is proficient in Spanish and has served as a volunteer interpreter for the website translatingcuba.com.  This website helps give voice to the dissident and independent writers in Cuba who suffer repression under the communist dictatorship.

 

She has also served as an interpreter for the Houston Volunteer Lawyer Project.

 

In the past she served on the Houston Bar Association Bench-Bar Pro Bono Awards Committee, and the boards of the Houston Read Commission and the Texas Center for Adolescent Rehabilitation and Education, and she served as a volunteer judge for the Family Law Evening Court project.

 

Personal Background

 

Keel met her husband, Jim Hippard, Jr., in law school, and they have three children.  The oldest, Greer, is a registered nurse.  The second, Connor, is a Texas Tech business school alum working in commercial plumbing in Houston.  Their youngest, Colleen, is an artist. 

 

Judge Keel grew up in Austin with her five brothers and a cousin.  

 

She enjoys reading, gardening and playing pickleball.