Keith obtained a B.A. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Rutgers University in 2010, where he studied the binding dynamics of the influenza NS1 protein in the laboratory of Gaentano Montelione using NMR. He remained at Rutgers as a research technician affiliated with the Protein Structure Initiative until he joined the lab of Liang Tong at Columbia University as a doctoral student. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 2020, with a dissertation on the structure and function of 3'-end mRNA processing factors. He joined the Alushin lab in 2021, receiving an Anderson Cancer Center Postdoctoral Fellowship the same year. He is investigating cell-cell adhesion and inter-cellular force transmission using a combination of optogenetics, cryo-electron tomography, and micropatterning.