Inside the Global SOF Foundation and co‑founder Meaghan Keeler

By her own admission, Meaghan Keeler’s mission is simple: get the good guys together, make them the best, and beat the bad guys.

From a small town on Florida’s east coast to the nerve centers of United States Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, she built a career out of connecting people who rarely get headlines but carry an outsized share of the world’s hardest problems.

“In high school, I did the International Baccalaureate program,” Keeler explained. “When I look back on it, that’s where the path to national security started.”

meaghan keeler presents sof week — (Courtesy of Meaghan Keeler)

She earned her master’s in International Politics and National Security from Georgetown.

“I worked for a nonprofit in D.C. called Women in International Security,” Keeler said. “It exposed me to senior women in the field supporting each other, which was cool. It was a great first job because I had natural mentors.”

During the height of the war in Iraq, Keeler took a contractor position with CENTCOM. By the time she left to take six months off to care for her newborn daughter, the war was raging in Afghanistan.

When she was ready to return, contract issues arose, and she was advised to look into SOCOM. Taking a position under Adm. William H. McRaven on an Operational Planning Team changed the trajectory of her life, Keeler stressed.

“It was there that I met Stu Braden and we founded the Global SOF Foundation,” she explained.

The Global SOF Foundation is a worldwide community builder for special operations forces, bringing together U.S. and partner‑nation operators, industry, and policymakers who rarely share the same room but face the same threats.“We started it because in the special operations community we work together with allies and partners all the time. We thought, ‘let’s create an organization that brings them together on a regular basis that’s outside of formal channels,’” Keeler shared.

“One of our big goals was to expand upon an event that happens in Tampa every year. It used to be an industry conference, and that’s kind of how SOF Week was born.”

meaghan keeler global sof 10 — (Courtesy of Meaghan Keeler)

The team turned SOF Week into a professional development event for the community, offering education for the public and building upon industry partnerships.

“I have a very simplistic way that I sometimes phrase it, which is that Global SOF aims to strengthen the connection between the good guys in this world and make sure the good guys are the most capable, with the best of the best, in order to beat the bad guys,” Keeler said.

Beyond events, scholarships, and connecting partner countries, Global SOF Foundation also spends a lot of time on Capitol Hill. Each year, its team briefs lawmakers and staff on what’s really happening in the SOF world.

They lay out the challenges operators are facing, which programs or capabilities need funding, and where new or updated authorities are required for them to succeed in their mission.

The organization is committed to supporting special operators for life.

“McRaven always said ‘you can’t surge trust,’ meaning that you have to have relationships with people before an emergency happens,” Keeler explained. “You have to build these bonds before you’re on the battlefield together.”

Caring for the battle buddies means taking care of those serving in the SOF community for partner nations, too.

“We have a scholarship that we started a couple years ago for partner nations, so non-U.S. special ops personnel that are here in Tampa. They get assigned to SOCOM for two years, and so while they’re here, we give them a scholarship to finish their degree or get a graduate degree,” she said. “We also pay for them to be able to come to events as well.”

Global SOF Foundation also gives back to other nonprofit organizations that support operators and families in the community.

As Keeler reflects on her career, she admits it wasn’t what she had planned, but there’s no community she wants to work harder for.