RMF 2021 speakers in order of appearance:
Eddie Herrera
Director of Plan Administration – Residual Markets, NCCI
Eddie Herrera is the director of Plan Administration in the Residual Market Department at NCCI. His duties include administration of the workers compensation residual market plans in states where NCCI is the Plan Administrator. Herrera is a past governor with the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) Society. Prior to joining NCCI, he held different positions with Travelers and Liberty Mutual.
He graduated from Florida Atlantic University with an MBA, is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, and a Workers Compensation Claims Law Specialist.
Cliff Merritt
Senior Division Executive, Residual Markets, NCCI
Cliff Merritt, senior division executive—Residual Markets, is responsible for administering the workers compensation residual market reinsurance pools and assigned risk plans approved in NCCI states.
He was previously NCCI’s director of reinsurance responsible for coordinating NCCI’s resources as administrator of workers compensation residual market reinsurance pools for various states. He also oversaw the servicing carrier indemnification and premium collections processes.
In addition to his 30-plus years of residual market experience with NCCI, Merritt served as vice president and chief financial officer for a workers compensation insurance carrier. He was also the chief operating officer for a commercial litigation law firm that specialized in workers compensation premium fraud litigation.
Merritt graduated from William Paterson University (formerly William Paterson College of New Jersey).
Melissa Palmer
Executive Director – Regulatory Projects, NCCI
Melissa Palmer, executive director of regulatory projects, is responsible for providing leadership, strategic planning, and technical skills for the systems and business operations in the Regulatory Division. Currently, she is leading the cross-divisional
Atlas Initiative project to modernize the development and delivery of all NCCI manual content.
Palmer has been with NCCI since 1986 and held a variety of positions including in assigned risk, experience rating, customer service, classification and inspection services, underwriting, training and quality services, business management and planning, and project management. Prior to her current position, she was director of Residual Market Plan Administration for 12 years.
She graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management. In addition, she is a Certified Information Professional (CIP), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and a certified Change Management Professional (CMP).
Tara Mercer
Information Solutions Consultant, NCCI
Tara Mercer is an information solutions consultant with the Regulatory Division at NCCI. In her current role, she consults with internal and external stakeholders to create, develop, and implement new content management solutions that improve the user experience. She is responsible for understanding the needs of customers, monitoring technology advancement, and effectively interacting with key stakeholders to formulate and sustain an enterprise content strategy.
She has consulted on several NCCI projects including the
Class Look-Up tool, rewrite of
WorkComp Workstation,
Retrospective Rating Table of Insurance Charges, and, most recently,
NCCI’s Atlas Initiative.
Mercer began her career with NCCI in 1994 as a customer service representative. She has worked in several areas of the organization including Experience Rating, Data Operations, and Product Management. In 2020 she moved to her current position in Regulatory.
She graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
[top]
