Meet the Funga Team: Megan Keller

Get to know the Funga crew with this newest installment of our "Meet the Team" series. Come back monthly to meet more team members, hear about their journey to Funga, and understand their vital role in our community.

We’re big fans of the “Today I get to….” mentality. So, what do you get to do every day at Funga?

I get to be part of the connective tissue of the company. As Funga’s Senior Business Operations Manager, I help run the day-to-day finance responsibilities and I’m always looking for ways to improve our processes so the rest of the team can spend less time wrangling logistics and more time on trees (or fungi, or carbon, or spreadsheets, depending on the day). If something needs to happen right now, I’m part of a team that jumps in fast, and honestly, I love that. No two days look the same, and I like knowing that our team can meet whatever comes up.

If you had to explain what Funga does to a third grader, what would you say?

Trees have tiny underground helpers called fungi that help them find water and nutrients they can’t get on their own, kind of like a hidden support team. When baby trees get planted, those partnerships often get lost, and the new trees end up trying to make it on their own without their old teammates. Funga finds those fungi and reunites them with the trees, so the forest can grow back healthier, faster, and store even more carbon in the process.

Tell us a little bit about your life. How did it lead you to Funga?

I’ve spent the last ten years working in conservation, and honestly, I’ve been a climate activist in spirit for a lot longer than that, even when it wasn’t my actual job title. Most recently, I worked at a land trust in New Mexico, helping create conservation easements that protected open space and wildlife habitat throughout the state. That work taught me a lot about the slower, more patient side of land protection such as the legal groundwork, the relationship-building, and the paperwork that must be airtight before a single acre is protected for good.

When I found Funga, it felt like a chance to bring that same protective instinct to something a little more active and solutions-oriented, restoring what’s been lost underground rather than working to preserve what’s still standing. It felt like a natural next chapter, using the operational skills I’d built to help support work that’s trying to actively restore the soil microbiome.

What is your favorite part of the job?

Getting to wear a lot of different hats. I’m usually the person people come to when something needs to happen fast, and I genuinely love that role. It’s often puzzling out a solution on the fly, jumping into whatever’s on fire that day, then moving on to something completely different an hour later. The variety keeps things interesting, and I like making sure my team feels supported. 

What is one workflow/productivity tool or trick that you can’t live without?

A paper list, written fresh every morning. I’ve tried just about every productivity app out there, but there’s something about physically writing down my day and crossing things off that no digital tool has ever quite replicated for me. Old-school, but it works for me.

What trivia round would you know every answer to?

Different ways to make coffee.

Can you share a favorite memory of/with the Funga team?

At a recent team offsite in Austin, a group of us took a boat out at dusk specifically to go see the bats. We saw exactly zero bats. What we did get was an hour of nonstop laughing and genuinely great company, and I remember thinking that this is a company full of really lovely people. I feel very lucky to be part of such a great team!