2008 GREAT WOMEN OF GAMING
Proven Leader
Jana McKeag
President
Lowry Strategies
A member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Jana McKeag’s passion for tribal issues is the overlying tenet of her work at Lowry Strategies (a company she founded with her husband, Tom Foley), the focus of her columns at Casino Journal and the fuel for spearheading her field’s hot-button issues.
A graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, from which she received a master’s degree in public administration, McKeag was led to her work in Indian gaming quite by accident. She was tapped by former Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan to help form the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC).
“He said legislation was just passed and he had to put together a commission, would I be interested?” said McKeag. “I’d like to say it was something I’d planned for my whole career, but it was just a fortunate break.”
The year was 1991, the time a groundbreaking one in Indian gaming affairs. “We could either stifle the industry or allow it to grow through a lot of the decisions we made and policy directions we took,” said McKeag. “We were under a lot of pressure—from AGs, U.S. attorneys, governors, all these different tribal leaders, to do various things, and I think that the decisions we made really allowed the industry to grow successfully.”
McKeag has been named a Proven Leader in the 2008 Great Women of Gaming awards. She believes that the success that came with working at the NIGC, her subsequent work as an advocate for tribal issues in the industry as a whole, as well as nominations by gaming industry colleagues James Maida and Don Speer, led to the honor. “There are a lot of phenomenal women out there, increasingly, in the gaming industry, so it’s a privilege to be among those selected for this honor,” said McKeag. “I think it’s also something that the Indian gaming industry can be proud of.”
The wide diversity of issues, overlaid by tribal concerns, is what keeps McKeag energized in her work. “My husband and I joke that there’s never a dull moment, but it’s true,” said McKeag. “The issues are becoming more and more critical as tribes and the gaming industry become more and more successful. It’s always a challenge, there’s always something new and different. That’s what I enjoy most about working in the gaming industry.”
McKeag’s philosophy is “we make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” Those words, once uttered by Winston Churchill, remind McKeag of her focus every day, not only working in Indian gaming, but on everyday Indian issues.
“It’s about having the ability to bring resources to tribes that previously weren’t available to them,” said McKeag. “It’s about a kid who can go to college who couldn’t go to college before or a grandmother who can have health care who previously had poor health care or none at all. That’s what drives me.”
In fact, one of the accomplishments McKeag is most proud of doesn’t have anything to do with gaming at all. One of her clients in the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota had been fighting for years to get land taken back into trust, not for gaming purposes but because it had been stolen from them by the Army Corps of Engineers and flooded. Working with Congress, McKeag was able to get that trust signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in 2006.
Taking a look at the women across the industry, McKeag sees a disproportionate number of women in higher positions (she, as president of Lowry Strategies, can be included in this assessment). She’s since seen women pursue roles not typically “female,” so she encourages other women to “go after the positions that are atypical, and listen to your mentors—female and male mentors—stay on top of the trends, read the literature and work very hard.” And, she added, “Have a sense of humor, especially about yourself.”
McKeag’s Lowry Strategies is, by design, a small, bipartisan government affairs and consulting firm. One of its business strategies is to have strategic alliances with firms around Washington, D.C. “One of the reasons we want to stay small is that our clients are our business, our clients are our passion—we want to do the best job possible that we can for them,” said McKeag. “We’re very honored to represent the clients that we do and feel that a lot of firms that have numerous clients can’t offer the level of service we can by staying small.”
McKeag has also been on the G2E advisory board for more than 10 years. Her future goals include keeping that conference the most vital and relevant in gaming. She aims to do that by keeping up on the evolving needs of the industry. This also plays into what she hopes to accomplish for her clients: staying ahead of the curve on key issues, keeping Indian gaming strong and helping them do the best they can in the current economy.
Copyright 2010, Great Women of Gaming. All rights reserved.
