Kyla Pavlina announced that she is returning to CrossFit as the newest Chief People Officer. Pavlina was CrossFit’s Head of Human Resources from 2013 through 2019. Now, just over six years later Pavlina is back. It is also CEO Bruce Edwards‘ first major hire since he rejoined the company earlier this month.
In a post on LinkedIn, Pavlina shared the news along with why she made the decision to come back to CrossFit HQ:
With a very full heart, I’ve made the decision to return to CrossFit as Chief People Officer.
Over the last 6+ years, I had the privilege of helping organizations bring life-saving tests, tools, and medicine to society. The experience expanded me as a leader and deepened my understanding of health, humanity, and what becomes possible when talented people align around meaningful work.
But it also reinforced something I’ve long believed: a company’s greatest asset is its people.
And while compensation, prestige, titles, recognition, and external indicators of success help drive performance, the strongest organizations have something else entirely.
PASSION.
The kind that creates an internal engine that keeps running through uncertainty, setbacks, challenge, and change because the motivation is intrinsic, not borrowed from external approval.
CrossFit has always represented that kind of environment to me.
It is one of the rare places where I have watched people bring their whole selves through the door — where challenge, accountability, growth, purpose, and community collide to unlock something extraordinary.
People are not simply pushed forward by pressure, instead pulled forward by passion.
During my first chapter at CrossFit, I watched people step into strengths they did not yet fully see in themselves. I watched belief spread from person to person. I watched communities rally around one another in ways that changed lives far beyond fitness.
That kind of energy creates ownership, resilience, confidence, courage, and contribution that no corporate incentive structure can manufacture.
My time away only deepened my appreciation for it.
In the dawn of AI, with political polarity rising and our little personal crack devices constantly stealing our focus, I honestly believe community is one of the strongest antidotes we have left.
At its best, CrossFit creates belonging in a world increasingly pulling people apart.
It is a community that defies what divides us.
Instead of driving isolation, it brings people together in pursuit of health, longevity, challenge, growth, and shared human experience.
That kind of connection matters now more than ever.
Humanity and purpose are not soft ideas. They are powerful internal engines that cannot be manufactured or artificially sustained. When those things fully switch on inside someone, it’s felt. People become more connected, courageous, creative, resilient, and willing to bring the very best of themselves into the room.
I could not be more excited to help meet people where they are, invite them forward through the strength of community, and continue building spaces where human beings become stronger, healthier, more capable, and more connected — together.
Honestly, my heart is smiling, my feet are dancing, and every part of me feels energized returning to this kind of work.
Urgency and humanity have always been inseparable twins inside me.
I’m grateful to return to a place where both belong.
Pavlina’s tenure at CrossFit overlapped with Edwards’ time as Chief Operating Officer. Edwards joined in October 2013 while Pavlina had joined HQ just five months earlier in May. Edwards left CrossFit in September 2019 and Pavlina left shortly thereafter in December 2019.
Despite stepped away from working at CrossFit, Pavlina has registered for the CrossFit Open twice since – in 2024 and 2026.
Pavlina replaces Annette Reavis, the former Chief People Officer at CrossFit, LLC. Reavis was hired by former CEO Don Faul. Reavis and Faul both left CrossFit in March 2026.
