Experience
Merritt is a Principal Security Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she provides technical cloud security guidance to complex, regulated organizations like the Fortune 100, and advises the leadership of AWS' largest customers on security as a bottom line proposition. While she works for Amazon, all information and opinions here are in Merritt's personal capacity.
Merritt's experience includes work in academia, the private sector, and all three branches of government. Most recently, she served as the Lead Cyber Advisor to the Federal Communications Commission. She has also served at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, the nation's cyber firehouse, where she wrote and implemented civilian cybersecurity strategy.
Merritt founded an advisory company for emerging technology companies and alternate asset vehicles. Her firm assessed the legal and technological viability of emerging technology companies, including tech specs as well as regulatory, market and interoperability considerations.
The office of US Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) created a fellowship for Merritt in recognition of her leadership in technology law and policy. Achievements included updating the JOBS Act to allow start-ups to crowdfund with equity, and passing space export control reform.
Following her graduation from Harvard Law School, Merritt served as a judicial clerk to Chief Judge James Baker at the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF), the US military's highest appellate court. USCAAF was experiencing the early reverberations of the realities of private companies owning the infrastructure of internet and technology, and the role of government and rights of military within that landscape.
In law school, Merritt conducted research at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, structuring individual research on the horizon of law, technology and business. Merritt was a law firm summer associate at Carlsmith Ball, LLP in Honolulu, HI, Cooley Godward Kronish in Boston, MA, and Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman in New York, NY. She has significant legal academic publications in the field of criminal constitutional law online, particularly child pornography law.
Merritt is a member of the New York Bar, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces Bar, and the US Supreme Court Bar. Security clearance information available upon request.
Merritt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recipient of the Center for New American Security Shawn Brimley Next Generation National Security Leaders Fellowship, a Fellow at the EastWest Institute's Worldwide Cybersecurity Initiative, founder of the tech expert network Tech and Roses and a member of Tech LadyMafia, a licensed bartender, and an amateur boxer.
Merritt's experience includes work in academia, the private sector, and all three branches of government. Most recently, she served as the Lead Cyber Advisor to the Federal Communications Commission. She has also served at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, the nation's cyber firehouse, where she wrote and implemented civilian cybersecurity strategy.
Merritt founded an advisory company for emerging technology companies and alternate asset vehicles. Her firm assessed the legal and technological viability of emerging technology companies, including tech specs as well as regulatory, market and interoperability considerations.
The office of US Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) created a fellowship for Merritt in recognition of her leadership in technology law and policy. Achievements included updating the JOBS Act to allow start-ups to crowdfund with equity, and passing space export control reform.
Following her graduation from Harvard Law School, Merritt served as a judicial clerk to Chief Judge James Baker at the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF), the US military's highest appellate court. USCAAF was experiencing the early reverberations of the realities of private companies owning the infrastructure of internet and technology, and the role of government and rights of military within that landscape.
In law school, Merritt conducted research at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, structuring individual research on the horizon of law, technology and business. Merritt was a law firm summer associate at Carlsmith Ball, LLP in Honolulu, HI, Cooley Godward Kronish in Boston, MA, and Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman in New York, NY. She has significant legal academic publications in the field of criminal constitutional law online, particularly child pornography law.
Merritt is a member of the New York Bar, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces Bar, and the US Supreme Court Bar. Security clearance information available upon request.
Merritt is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recipient of the Center for New American Security Shawn Brimley Next Generation National Security Leaders Fellowship, a Fellow at the EastWest Institute's Worldwide Cybersecurity Initiative, founder of the tech expert network Tech and Roses and a member of Tech LadyMafia, a licensed bartender, and an amateur boxer.