The National Institutes of Health has selected federal IT veteran Adele Merritt to serve as chief information officer and director of the NIH Office of the Chief Information Office, or OCIO.

In a statement published Monday, NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli said Merritt will report to Sean Mooney -- director of NIH's Center for Information Technology and associate director for IT, cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity -- as she oversees the agency's IT strategy, governance, policy and security and advises the leadership team on all IT matters.

"Her breadth of experience and passion for harnessing technology to drive mission outcomes will be invaluable to NIH in advancing cutting-edge IT solutions in support of biomedical research and public health," Bertagnolli noted.

Merritt replaces Dennis Papula, who has served as acting NIH CIO and interim director of OCIO since January 2023. Papula is now transitioning to the role of CIO at the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

The newly appointed NIH CIO brings more than two decades of experience in cyber and national security operations to the position.

Merritt most recently served as the intelligence community CIO at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where she led modernization efforts to improve security, transform enterprise IT and promote collaboration across intelligence agencies.

The former National Security Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government was also principal deputy CIO for cyber at the Department of Energy and held senior roles at the White House National Security Council Staff.

The Pace University finance graduate holds a master's degree and doctorate in mathematics from the University of Rhode Island, Kingston.