
Abby Funabiki
As the Associate Executive Director at BootUp, Abby Funabiki leads the PD team and partners with school districts across the country to implement district-wide computer science for all initiatives. Abby serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation award with three school districts on the Wyoming Wind River Reservation to integrate computer science into social studies and ELA, in culturally relevant ways. A highlight of her work is learning from the many educators and social justice advocates she surrounds herself with. Abby also collaborates with national partners like code.org and the CSforAll Consortium to help district leaders understand what is needed to support #CSforAll.
Abby has worked in the nonprofit sector supporting public education for over ten years. Most recently, Abby worked for the Park City Education Foundation. In Park City, she managed grants and awards supporting over 50 district programs, led fundraising campaigns, and analyzed data trends and key indicators to evaluate program performance and impact. In 2013, Abby led Park City School District’s rebranding project as their Communications Director and created processes for the newly formed communications department. Abby has presented at state and local conferences on district implementation models, data analytics, and fundraising.
While attending Willamette University in Oregon, Abby interned for the Willamette University Foundation and McCormick Foundation in Chicago. She played on the tennis team and served as Team Captain her senior year. Go Bearcats! She has earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Utah and wrote her thesis on nonprofit capacity building.
Abby is passionate about equity in public education and believes access to computer science during the school day can be a true equalizer.
Our Team

Clark Merkley
Executive Director

Abby Funabiki, MPA
Associate Executive Director

Jared O'Leary, PhD
Director of Education & Research

Karen Melara
Marketing Manager

Tizara Taylor
District Coding Accelerator

Suzanne B. Carlson, M. Ed.
District Coding Accelerator

Brenda Bass
Lead PD Facilitator

McKay Perkins, MS
Senior PD Facilitator

Laurie Green
Senior PD Facilitator

Heather Cunningham
Senior PD Facilitator

Carlos Leon
Senior PD Facilitator

Melody Hagaman
Senior PD Facilitator

Ashley Waring
Senior PD Facilitator

Kelly Powers
PD Facilitator

Michael Hanahan
Marketing Consultant
Emilie Martinez
Web Developer

Stacie Mason, PhD
Research and Evaluation