WOMEN WHO WOW.

• Author: Pressler, Alyssa

This year's Women In Business section profiles four highly accomplished professionals involved in the state's financial services and healthcare sectors. Each woman prioritizes strong relationships with colleagues and community members, characteristics that have helped them achieve impressive career and personal milestones. Each leader has blazed a path in traditionally male-dominated industries. Each has a compelling story that is instructive for others aiming to make a valuable mark.

MELISSA NELSON | Marsh McLennan Agency RUBY JONES-DEANS | Davenport & Company LAURA HAMMOND | First Carolina Bank ANITA HUGHES BACHMANN | United Healthcare MELISSA NELSON vice president, employee health and benefits

MarshMcLennan Agency

Greensboro

336-346-1353

marshmma.com

As Melissa Nelson, vice president of employee health and benefits at Marsh McLennan Agency, likes to joke, health insurance was an unexpected destination for her career. The road to that industry often has a few stops along the way.

For Nelson, this meant an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from N.C. State University where she learned more about what she didn't want to do than what she did. As a student athlete, she always had a passion for health and wellness. This led her to a master's program in public health at UNC Chapel Hill, where she found a world of folks who help employers with their insurance benefits.

The rest, they say, is history. Nelson found something that kept her in health and wellness, and allowed her to make an impact by helping employers manage their benefits offerings and connecting them with the right health programs for their employees. In doing so, she helps employers attract the best talent and employees by increasing access to benefits that help them maintain healthy lifestyles.

"They're putting a lot of dollars [into their benefits offerings], so it's our job to make sure they are good stewards of the money they're spending, but also make sure their employees understand that investment and how they can interact with the programs," Nelson says.

Her days at Marsh McLennan Agency are always different--another reason she loves her job and has been with the company for 14 years. Often, she's meeting with insurance carriers to learn about new programs, meeting with clients to explain these new programs or consult with them on their existing benefits packages, or meeting with her team for analysis.

"It's people focused, and there's certainly elements of data," Nelson...