NIH CIO Adele Merritt departs for DOD-affiliated research role

The National Institutes of Health’s top IT official has left the agency for a role with a Pentagon-linked research lab.

Adele Merritt, who took over as NIH’s chief information officer and director of the NIH Office of the Chief Information Officer on Dec. 16, departed her role on Friday, Federal News Network first reported. She came over to the agency — a component of the Department of Health and Human Services that conducts biomedical research — after having served as CIO for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence since January 2022.

The University of Maryland announced on Monday that Merritt has been named the new chief research officer of its Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, one of the Department of Defense’s 14 university-affiliated research centers. They added that she will lead “strategic scientific and technical initiatives across ARLIS’s mission areas.”

As of Tuesday, Merritt is still listed as the agency’s CIO. NIH has not released any statement about her departure. When she was named NIH’s top IT official in December, however, the agency said she was “well positioned to drive the strategic direction of NIH IT resources and infrastructure.” 

Prior to joining NIH last year, Merritt was responsible for overseeing IT efforts across the Intelligence Community’s 18 different federal agencies, including working to modernize systems and enhance cybersecurity practices. 

In addition to her role as Intelligence Community CIO, Merritt previously served as principal deputy CIO for cyber at the Energy Department and also held senior positions as a staffer for the National Security Council.