Keenan earned his BSc in 2018 from the University of Alberta, where he worked with Dr. Sally Leys investigating the ecology of glass sponge reefs in Hecate Strait, British Columbia. At MLML he investigated drivers of rhythmic contraction behaviours in the marine demosponges Tethya californiana and Hymeniacidon perlevis. He used time-lapse photography and microscopy to improve our understanding of sponge coordination, behaviour, and resilience.

Keenan defended his thesis in May 2025 and is now a Research Unit Technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.