Jim Keeney joined the Guardian Hills Veterans Healing Center Board of Directors in 2025. 

Jim served with the United States Air Force (active duty/reserves) over a period of 25 years (1985-2010).    During active duty as an orthopaedic surgeon (1998-2010), Jim deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (2002) and served twice at a busy US mobile field hospital in Iraq (2005, 2007).  Jim served as the orthopaedic surgery specialty consultant to the Air Force Surgeon General (2006-2009). 

After separating from the Air Force, Jim was a hip/knee arthritis surgeon at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri (2010-2014) and with the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri (2015-2025).   His practice has included caring for military service veterans with the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system while he was in the Air Force (1998-2003) and after his military service (2010-2025).  His work has included providing patient care, educating medical students and younger doctors (residents), training younger doctors in joint replacement and fracture surgery, evaluating care quality, and performing clinical research.   Jim has served on leadership boards and multiple committees in orthopaedic surgery-related medical organizations.

Jim participated in the Guardian Hills Veterans Healing Center program in October 2025 and appreciated how this program helps veterans connect the dots between past experiences and how we approach life today.     He came away with valuable tools to help respond to stress, and noticed how the program has positively impacted personal relationships.

Jim and his wife Connie grew up in Florissant, Missouri (went to the same high school as the Slawskis—just a few years later), and were married in 1989.   Connie graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in occupational therapy—which she still uses in volunteer work.  Jim and Connie raised 4 girls—growing up with both positive experiences and challenges of military life and medical life.    They live in Columbia, Missouri, love their community and church family, are adjusting to a new (“retired”) stage of life, and are very happy to support Guardian Hills.