After finishing a double major in Biology and Environmental Sciences, and completing an honors thesis under the guidance of Dr. Stephen Hendrix, Keith Gaddis enrolled in the United States Peace Corps. Keith was stationed in The Islamic Republic of Mauritania for three years, where he worked as an environmental education and girls' education and empowerment volunteer. He went on to pursue a PhD in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA studying landscape genetics in desert plant populations.

He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor in the department of Geography at Texas A&M University, where he is examining the impact of climate change on shrub expansion and greening patterns in the arctic. Keith is now the program manager for the NASA Biological Diversity and Ecological Forecasting programs at NASA Headquarters.