Merrill Keating | 2025

Merrill Keating is a dynamic 20-year-old advocate for gender equality, youth leadership, and STEM education who has dedicated her life to making the world a better place for all.

Recently selected by USA Today as a Woman of the Year 2024, and Bainbridge Community Foundation’s “2024 Outstanding Young Philanthropist”, Merrill is the founder of Girls Ignited and The Power of 100 Girls. Keating also hosted Changemakers Summit in March 2022, showcasing female founders, entrepreneurs, activists, and those in the STEM field, who are 25 years old or younger. 

Merrill’s global impact extends through her participation in UN Women’s “Generation Equality Forum” where she was part of 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. 

One of approximately forty 10th-graders around the world to be accepted into UW Academy, 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 completing her final year, and relentless about paving a way for others. Keating is a black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, played violin, piano, and alto saxophone, and speaks Mandarin.