Annual Luncheon

Merrill Keating is a dynamic 20-year-old advocate for gender equality, youth leadership, and STEM education. Recently selected by USA Today as a 2024 Woman of the Year, and Bainbridge Community Foundation’s “2024 Outstanding Young Philanthropist”, Merrill is the founder of Girls Ignited and The Power of 100 Girls.

Merrill’s participated in UN Women’s “Generation Equality Forum," a global youth takeover of the United Nations to co-create solutions to global challenges. She was also a 2023 and 2024 World Bank Group Youth Summit Delegate. She was the 2020 Women in Science Excel (WISE) 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 in 1 Million Women In STEM, Girl Museum, CreateHer Collective, and Geekwire's Geek of the Month. 

Merrill left high school after her sophomore year and became a freshman in college at the age of 15. She is a Mechanical Engineering major at the University of Washington 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.