Tracey Keefauver

Tracey is an incredibly passionate, driven, inspiring and dedicated professional who shared Career journey with us. When asked about her proudest moments and most notable professional she meant she seated that in her six short years she has taken on many specialty positions in their department. She became a crisis negotiator and worked with their SWAT team one on one in crisis situations, and hostage situations. That is something she's extremely Proud of, being a part of something greater and advocating to help people and be able to reach positive outcomes. SWAT team may go in and want to take out the bad guy, but for her it's about getting everybody out safe. She has been able to go into crisis intervention as well and help with people who are facing mental health crises, suicidal people, and those who are not thinking clearly and want to end their lives not realizing that in the moment there is a bright future ahead of them. She has been able to help people see past that, so Crisis intervention specialist has been another hat she's worn and she loves being able to advocate for others as a mental health first responder. She enters the scene, looking to de-escalate and figure out how she can help others without them harming themselves and get them out of the situation, into a hospital and reach the best-case scenario possible. This has been a tremendous area of fulfillment and honor for Tracey.

Tracey confirmed she has been in law enforcement for 6 years and recently obtained her master's degree in May, starting her teaching career in criminal justice about 2 months ago. Tracey shared that her motivation to enter law enforcement came from witnessing her sister's struggles, leading her to pursue a career focused on helping victims and combating crime. Despite being a single mother, Tracey completed her criminal justice degree at Baker College and attended the Mid-Michigan Police Academy before entering law enforcement at age 32.

Tracey expressed her goals and desire to become a domestic violence investigator and work with special populations, particularly children who are abuse victims. She shared an example of how her work as a school resource officer helped identify and protect abused children, leading to positive outcomes for both the students and their families.

Tracey emphasized her focus on empowering women in law enforcement to thrive and overcome challenges. Above all else, what's important to her is not having the recognition of being an influential woman, but actually being one by providing resources and support to all other women who are looking to enter her field, to provide them with the and encouragement to really follow their dreams. Anything is possible when you work hard and you focus on your dreams, and she wants to truly make an impact on young women who have an interest in joining the law enforcement industry. We are looking forward to seeing what comes next in her journey as her career continues to expand to, as she continues to touch the lives of others through her education, teaching, and mentorships.

When asked about the people who have made the greatest impact her life, she highlighted her children being the driving force behind everything she does. They truly help her focus on what she wants to achieve in building a brighter future for herself and for her family. She is very grateful and proud of them, and would love to highlight them as her greatest inspiration. We would also love to honor her late grandmother Alice who passed away in 2009 who was the glue that held her family together. Alice always stood behind her, she could tell her she wanted to be an astronaut and live in space and her grandmother would have supported it. She loves her grandmother, and ever grateful for the sky being the limit with her. She was always supportive, always encouraging and no matter what she always stood behind her grandchildren. Grandma Alice was definitely her hero common she would love to honor her and highlight her immense impact in her life. She would also like to highlight her parents, her mother and father were a huge part of her character and values. Her father looked at her as if she was crazy when she decided to become a police officer, but today he is so proud and any time he sees a picture come up of her she tells her she needs to print it out so that he can frame it. She is very grateful for her parents, and for all the people who have made a tremendous impact and supported her throughout her career and where she stands today.

The advice she would share with young women is don't be scared of male driven fields. There will be many men surrounding you that are there to support you, and there will also be some who doubt you and want to hinder you. At the end of the day, We need more women in command, and we need to step forward and take a leap of faith. You can sit back and be a road deputy for the rest of your life, and that may be fine for some people, but if you want to see change in this career and you want to see women leaders you need to step up and be willing to make that change and be that change. Take the steps needed to put that into effect, build a foundation of support, and continue to gain better insight and wisdom in your area of expertise. And if you don't want to inspire others, then you can sit on the back burner, but we need to have a voice, we need to speak up and show others that we are capable, and anything is possible when you are passionate about it and you follow your dreams with hard work supporting your efforts.

Tracey will be jumping in to add more detail regarding or her inspirations and what keeps her motivated, how she would like to connect with other amazing women within our network and how she would like to inspire our readers, the things that bring her joy in life including her interests and hobbies aside from work, any details she would like to add regarding her mentors and the people who have impacted her journey and any additional accomplishments or accolades she would like us to shine a light on.

Tracey is recently married, after being a single mother for many years. She is enjoying taking the time to enjoy her husband who is a Navy veteran and an incredible man with an amazing story. She also has two wonderful children Kylie and Wyatt who are 23 and 21, and the absolute joy of her life. Her children have overcome a lot and work diligently today to build brighter futures for themselves. When she was going through her education, she would come home to them in the driveway with a boom box playing music to welcome her home. They were the Three musketeers, and her children are really the driving force in her life. She spends a lot of time traveling for work, but she loves to also travel with her family, going on cruises and spending as much time together as possible.

The values that she looks to uphold is going through life with a very positive outlook. Things are not always going to go your way and it's not always going to be perfect, but if you let the negative get to you you're only going to bring negative to the table. There have been times where she has dealt with hard challenging days in her job, it is not always easy, she has been able to enter those situations and face them by taking note of the positive. When dealing with victim services, she knows that she is able to help people get through the worst days of their lives, so that's the positive, the impact she's having on families in her community. It's important to stay positive moving forward when things don't go your way, even if that's for applying for a position or promotion and not receiving it, ask yourself how you can be better, what can I learn from this? Stay positive, and continue to move forward being your best self every day, that way the next time opportunities come around they will be yours.