OUR COLLABORATORS

Shawn Merrill, MS Ed, MBA

HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN

Shawn Merrill is a strategist and innovation leader with a love for Philadelphia and its schools. He is deeply committed to human-centered approaches that are linguistically and culturally responsive. His career spans the classroom to the corporate executive suite. He began as a public school Spanish teacher at Simon Gratz High School, later helped found Bloom Planning, and now leads system-level strategy and transformation across a complex insurance ecosystem. Shawn brings enterprise strategy, operational insight, and creative facilitation skills to guide organizations through strategic planning, innovation, and alignment—always centering on the voices of communities and learners. He holds an MBA from BYU’s Marriott School of Business and a master’s degree in urban education from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of work, Shawn enjoys spending time with his two young kids, exploring new parks, telling bedtime stories, and taking family bike rides around the neighborhood.