In the wake of the 2005 hurricanes, Robin Keegan returned from New York to her hometown of New Orleans to serve as the Louisiana Recovery Authority’s director of economic and workforce development policy. In this role, she worked with other state agencies to develop a $350 million portfolio of economic and workforce programs to meet the immediate priorities of economic recovery.

In April 2008, Keegan accepted an appointment to the position of LRA deputy director. As deputy director, she oversaw policy development and guided the implementation of the recovery effort, working to help the LRA fulfill its statutory mission and purpose.

Previously, Keegan was the deputy director of the Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan policy organization dedicated to independent, fact-based research about critical economic and workforce issues affecting New York’s future. In addition to overseeing management and development for the organization, Keegan led the Center’s research on arts and economic development. She was a lead author on Creative New York, a groundbreaking study that provided the first comprehensive assessment of New York’s creative sector, and also co-authored the Center’s 2002 report, The Creative Engine, an assessment of neighborhood-based arts and economic development in New York City.

Keegan started her work in cultural planning and economic development in the mid 1990s as the co-leader of Create Baton Rouge, a two–year cultural planning process for Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University.