Deborah Kling Rooney is the co-founder of BEADs for Education, a non-profit that improves the status of Kenyan women by offering business development and primarily girls' education. She first fell in love with people of the Maasai region of Kenya during a 1991 visit; two years later, Rooney devoted her life to empowering girls and women living in the region. BEADS for Education first focused on selling the beadwork of the Dupoto Women's group to help those women send their daughters to school. The organization then began arranging educational sponsorships for elementary school aged girls and has since funded the education of more than 500 elementary through college age girls. Older girls supported by the program serve a one year internship teaching or conducting community service projects before beginning college. BEADS for Education opened its own high school, Tembea Academy, in 2013; in 2017, it celebrated the graduation of its first class of students who attended Tembea all four years of high school.