John David “J.D.” Merrill currently serves as Chief of Staff to Mayor Brandon M. Scott.

He previously held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff beginning in July 2023. During his tenure as Deputy Chief, he worked to support core functions within the Mayor’s Office including the Mayor’s Communications, Correspondence and Constituent Services, Government Relations, Community Affairs, and Scheduling teams and led special projects to advance the Mayor’s agenda, including the Mayor’s vacant housing strategy, the Mayor’s attendance challenge, the redevelopment of Harborplace, and the expansion of middle school athletics with Baltimore City Public Schools. He also served as the Mayor’s designee at the Unified Command’s Incident Command Post following the Key Bridge incident.

Between June 2024 to July 2025, he served as interim Deputy Mayor for Equity, Health, and Human Services before returning to the DCOS position. As interim Deputy Mayor, Merrill helped launch Baltimore’s first office of Overdose Response, Overdose Cabinet, and OverdoseStat, reimagined YouthStat, helped coordinate the Mayor’s summer youth engagement strategy, helped capture customer satisfaction at the City’s public pools, and helped enhance programming at late-night recreation centers.

Prior to working in City Hall, Merrill spent ten years working with Baltimore City Public Schools as a teacher, district administrator, school administrator, and consultant. Additionally, he has served in a variety of roles in political campaigns at all levels and has been an active presence in Democratic Party politics at the local, state, and national level for more than a decade.

He earned his M.S. from Johns Hopkins School of Education, his B.A. from Davidson College, and his high school diploma from Baltimore City College, the third oldest public high school in the United States.