Lynn Merritt

Lynn Merritt is senior vice president and chief human resources officer of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), a national federation of 34 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) companies. Today, one in three Americans is covered by the Blue System.

Merritt is passionate about building high-performing teams that evolve and support an employee-centric, results-driven culture. At BCBSA she is focused on aligning workforce and human capital strategies to enable the organization’s business goals and culture. She is responsible for all facets of human resources, including compensation, benefits, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, human resources information systems, talent acquisition, talent development, organizational design, employee relations and the human resources business partner team.

Prior to joining the Association, Merritt held several executive human resources positions within both payer and provider organizations. Her most recent role was executive vice president and chief people officer for a BCBS company-owned behavioral health company, New Directions Behavioral Health. Earlier in her career, she spent more than 15 years combined at Aetna, CIGNA and The Hartford in various human resource roles, ranging from talent development, learning and analytics to business partnerships.

Merritt holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Science in organizational behavior from the University of Hartford.