Courtney Jackson’s Passion for Serving Others Inspires Creative Tribal Healthcare Benefit Solutions

Service has always been at the heart of Courtney Jackson’s story. Growing up with a mother in healthcare, she saw early on how compassion and connection can transform lives — a lesson she’s carried through every chapter of her career, from administrative roles in radiology and human resources, to her years as a stay-at-home mom, and ultimately to her career in benefits.

As Associate Vice President and Client Executive in Marsh McLennan Agency Arizona’s Tucson office, Courtney specializes in healthcare benefits with a focus on the highly nuanced world of tribal healthcare. She guides clients through complex benefits landscapes with strategies that honor their unique needs and values.

Seeing the People Behind Every Benefits Decision

Courtney believes the best benefits strategies begin with a deep understanding of the people they’re meant to serve. She breaks down complexity, explains options in plain language and shapes solutions that fit each client’s reality.

“You don’t have to accommodate me, I need to accommodate you,” she says. “My job is to meet you where you are, whatever your life or circumstance looks like.”

With tribal groups, that often means sitting down with leadership — typically a chairman or tribal council — to understand how cultural priorities, employee needs and funding requirements intersect.

Her relationship-first approach ensures benefits are built alongside the community and never imposed from outside pressures or norms.

Finding Creative Ways to Fill Gaps in Care

In tribal healthcare, there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all playbook. Courtney frequently navigates rural access challenges, grant-based funding models and unique exemptions that call for inventive, highly tailored solutions.

One of her proudest moments came when she spotted a tribal client’s need for bariatric surgery coverage, a benefit often out of reach for many employees. Drawing on her own experience with significant weight loss, she negotiated the coverage into the contract at no extra cost.

Then she took it further, leading education sessions, sharing her story and connecting employees with the right care teams. Through these efforts, employees gained access to a life-changing benefit — and the confidence to use it.

Investing in Relationships That Outlast the Contract

For Courtney, relationship-building starts with a simple but powerful philosophy: “I seek to understand.” Personally and professionally, she sees herself as a puzzle piece, listening first to learn the full scope of a challenge and then finding the best way to fit solutions within it.

“It’s not that I’ll have all the answers all the time,” she says. “But if there’s something in my wheelhouse or I have the ability to help or figure it out, I’m always going to do that.”

That mindset guides her work in Tucson and beyond. A longtime resident with deep community ties, she invests in relationships outside the office too, showing up for local events, fundraisers and galas to support the clients she serves.

Living Life in Motion & Bringing Others Along for the Ride

Away from work, Courtney’s world moves at full speed. With a high school freshman and a middle schooler, most days for her and her husband are a blur of football games, soccer practices and competitive dance performances. “I feel like a chicken without a head most of the time,” she laughs.

Daily workouts keep her grounded, and when she’s not moving, she’s making — whether tackling a home project, experimenting with art or trying local crafting classes. One hat-burning class, where you use heated tools to scorch designs into felt, even sparked a new passion, which she later turned into a hit client appreciation event.

If it excites her and brings people together, she finds a way to share it in every part of her life.

Connect with Courtney on LinkedIn.