Merrill Keating
CIO
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Recently selected by USA Today as a Woman of the Year 2024, 19-year-old Merrill Keating is a dynamic advocate for gender equality, youth leadership, and STEM education. She is a West Sound Technology Association board member and has been a dedicated mentor with West Sound CoderDojo since the age of 10, helping individuals of all ages learn computer programming. Merrill is also a prolific author, having authored three books by the age of 12, with a fifth groundbreaking title, "So You Want to Be a Youth Leader," scheduled for publication.
Founder of Bainbridge Island GirlUp (a chapter of the global United Nations Foundation initiative), Girls Ignited, and The Power of 100 Girls (where she has awarded two grants and is preparing to award a third), Keating has lobbied for the successful passage of the Keeping Girls in School Act, served on the operations team for Reinvented Magazine – the nation’s first print magazine by and for girls and women in STEM – and founded and led two TEDx events. A former Teen Council member of Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN), she was one of 15 students in the Bainbridge Island School District Improvement Plan Process, representing the voice of students on the process which guides the work done at all the schools towards shaping the district’s future direction for the Bainbridge Island School District. Keating also hosted Changemakers Summit in March 2022, showcasing female founders, entrepreneurs, activists, or in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field and 25 years old or younger from Cyprus, Florida, Africa, New York, New Hampshire, and Washington State.
Merrill’s global impact extends through her participation in UN Women’s “Generation Equality Forum” and was selected for the inaugural YOUNGA™ Forum, connecting with top-level decision-makers and influencers in a global youth takeover of the United Nations to co-create solutions to global
challenges. She is also a Young Professional with United Nations Association of the United States, a Youth Leader Participant for UN Women’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, a UN Innovation Network Observer, and a member of the UN’s Space Generation Advisory Council.
A catalyst for change, she has dedicated her life to making the world a better place for all. As a Voices for Innovation (VFI) Ambassador, she traveled to Washington, D.C. in support of public policies that advance innovation and foster a dynamic technology industry. She was the 2020 Women in Science
Excel scholar, National Center for Women & Information Technology’s “Aspirations in Computing” state winner, a NASA Space Grant Scholar who worked on insect robotics in space, has been featured as 1 Million Women In STEM, in Girl Museum, CreateHer Collective, selected as Geekwire's Geek of the
Month for January 2021, and is a member of Society for Women Engineers.
One of approximately forty 10th-graders around the world to be accepted into UW Academy, created in partnership with the University of Washington Honors Program, Merrill left high school after her sophomore year and became a freshman in college at the age of 15. She is now a Mechanical Engineering
major completing her final year, and relentless about paving a way for others. Keating is a black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, plays violin, piano, and alto saxophone, and speaks Mandarin.
Founder of Bainbridge Island GirlUp (a chapter of the global United Nations Foundation initiative), Girls Ignited, and The Power of 100 Girls (where she has awarded two grants and is preparing to award a third), Keating has lobbied for the successful passage of the Keeping Girls in School Act, served on the operations team for Reinvented Magazine – the nation’s first print magazine by and for girls and women in STEM – and founded and led two TEDx events. A former Teen Council member of Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN), she was one of 15 students in the Bainbridge Island School District Improvement Plan Process, representing the voice of students on the process which guides the work done at all the schools towards shaping the district’s future direction for the Bainbridge Island School District. Keating also hosted Changemakers Summit in March 2022, showcasing female founders, entrepreneurs, activists, or in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) field and 25 years old or younger from Cyprus, Florida, Africa, New York, New Hampshire, and Washington State.
Merrill’s global impact extends through her participation in UN Women’s “Generation Equality Forum” and was selected for the inaugural YOUNGA™ Forum, connecting with top-level decision-makers and influencers in a global youth takeover of the United Nations to co-create solutions to global
challenges. She is also a Young Professional with United Nations Association of the United States, a Youth Leader Participant for UN Women’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum, a UN Innovation Network Observer, and a member of the UN’s Space Generation Advisory Council.
A catalyst for change, she has dedicated her life to making the world a better place for all. As a Voices for Innovation (VFI) Ambassador, she traveled to Washington, D.C. in support of public policies that advance innovation and foster a dynamic technology industry. She was the 2020 Women in Science
Excel scholar, National Center for Women & Information Technology’s “Aspirations in Computing” state winner, a NASA Space Grant Scholar who worked on insect robotics in space, has been featured as 1 Million Women In STEM, in Girl Museum, CreateHer Collective, selected as Geekwire's Geek of the
Month for January 2021, and is a member of Society for Women Engineers.
One of approximately forty 10th-graders around the world to be accepted into UW Academy, created in partnership with the University of Washington Honors Program, Merrill left high school after her sophomore year and became a freshman in college at the age of 15. She is now a Mechanical Engineering
major completing her final year, and relentless about paving a way for others. Keating is a black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, plays violin, piano, and alto saxophone, and speaks Mandarin.
