Bill Keegan is a highly decorated Lieutenant in the Special Operations Division (S.O.D.) and a 20-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department. During the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Bill Keegan received the Medal of Valor for the rescue of trapped children in an elevator at the 43rd floor of Tower One. Lieutenant Bill Keegan responded to the WTC attacks on September 11th and the next day was named Night Operations Commander of the WTC Rescue/Recovery Teams, where he supervised over 500 police responders over the nine month long recovery mission. For those nine months Bill was responsible for the respectful and safe recovery of human remains, personal effects and evidence; providing support and information for family members who had lost a loved one on that fateful day in September.

Bill retired in 2005 and founded HEART 9/11 (Healing Emergency Aid Response Team) in 2007 – a non-profit disaster response organization comprised of police, fire, union construction workers, 9/11 surviving families that bonded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 to honor the sacrifices of brave colleagues and family members lost, to continue to utilize their experience and training in service to others, and to provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid to individuals and communities in need. HEART 9/11’s mission is to Respond immediately to natural and man made disasters; Rebuild community centers in hard-hit areas to meet grass-root needs; Recover by building resiliency for individuals, families and communities.