Anissa Keyes is a North Minneapolis native, U.S. Army veteran, therapist, entrepreneur, community developer, and woman of faith whose life's work centers on a simple but powerful belief: people and communities can be restored through love, relationship, access, and opportunity.

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After serving in the United States Army, Anissa entered the social services field with a particular passion for reaching individuals and families who were least likely to access traditional systems of care. Her commitment to this work became deeply personal after losing her father in her early twenties. She understood that her father, and many others struggling with addiction, mental health challenges, and the stigma surrounding both, might never walk into a traditional therapy office. That realization shaped her philosophy: sometimes, if people cannot or will not come to the help, the help must go to the people.

Anissa's understanding of healing also comes from her own lived experience. Her personal journey has included struggles with addiction that once threatened her clinical license, as well as the difficult work of restoration that followed. Rather than separating those experiences from her professional life, Anissa allowed them to deepen her understanding of healing, accountability, grace, and transformation. Her own healing journey eventually led her to become a bodywork provider and Registered Yoga Teacher, expanding her clinical approach beyond traditional talk therapy to include greater attention to the body, nervous system, and whole person.

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Over the years, Anissa built and scaled a mental health organization serving her community while intentionally developing a leadership team capable of carrying much of its day-to-day work. Today, she increasingly serves as a visionary, creating new ways to improve the quality of life for African Americans and other underserved communities, particularly in North Minneapolis.

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Her work now reaches beyond the therapy room. Through mental health services, community placemaking, real estate development, entrepreneurship, and ministry, Anissa seeks to create environments where people can heal, belong, build, and thrive.

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Faith is the foundation beneath all of it.

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Anissa describes her business philosophy as being deeply influenced by Biblical principles of sowing and reaping, sacrificial giving, stewardship, and obedience. She believes that what God entrusts to us should be cared for well, multiplied wisely, and ultimately used in service to others. Through building and scaling businesses, investing in real estate, and diversifying her financial portfolio, Anissa has gained practical wisdom about entrepreneurship, financial sustainability, and creating pathways toward economic freedom and generational wealth.

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Her passion for community development grew from recognizing another kind of underutilized resource: space. Anissa became increasingly interested in identifying buildings and properties within North Minneapolis that could be transformed from overlooked spaces into community assets, places capable of supporting healing, entrepreneurship, economic development, connection, and ownership.

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That vision led her to purchase and redevelop a 20,000-square-foot historic bank building in North Minneapolis. She also acquired a neighboring parking lot, where she hopes to develop an affordable housing project within the next three to five years. Although Anissa has no formal training in commercial real estate development, she has learned the work by doing it, building relationships, asking questions, finding resources, navigating obstacles, and refusing to allow a "no" to automatically become the end of the story.

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She believes that good character, persistence, spiritual grounding, wise stewardship, and the collective strength of family and community can make seemingly impossible things possible.

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Professionally, Anissa earned her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, and Registered Yoga Teacher in Minnesota.  She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist in Texas.  Additionally, she is approved by Minnesota licensing boards to provide supervision to professionals pursuing LPC, LPCC, LICSW, and LMFT licensure.

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Across every area of her work, two principles remain constant: Love and Restoration. For Anissa, these are more than organizational values. They are spiritual principles. She believes God embodies the perfect definition of love and that restoration is at the heart of what He does. Her desire is to reflect those principles in the way she serves people, builds organizations, develops community assets, and stewards what has been entrusted to her.

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Ultimately, Anissa's vision is bigger than any individual business or building. She wants to contribute to the economic growth and restoration of North Minneapolis, create opportunities for people who have historically had less access to them, and build a legacy of faith, service, ownership, and wealth for her five children and generations to come.

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When she isn't building, serving, or dreaming about what is possible, Anissa enjoys spending time with her five children, participating in church and ministry activities, practicing yoga, and reading.

Her life and work continue to be driven by one central desire: to steward well what God has placed in her hands and faithfully fulfill the call He has placed on her life.