Influential Woman · Insurance and Bakery
Erica Brown Hunter
Complex Claims Advisor, AmRisc/SDA
Atlanta, GA
Her Story
About Erica
Erica Hunter is a litigation specialist with over two decades of experience in the insurance industry. She began her career as a personal injury protection claims representative at Progressive Insurance and progressed through roles in liability and bodily injury claims before moving into litigation work involving property, large loss, and injury claims. She currently serves as litigation specialist for the Amherst program under Sedgwick SDA in Atlanta, Georgia, managing large loss, general liability, and commercial loss properties. Erica holds a degree in criminal justice from Coppin State University, earned in 2001, and completed litigation training through ACCC. Outside of her primary career, she owns Sweet Lois bakery, named after her grandmother, where she specializes in celebration and wedding cakes, and she founded and runs the nonprofit Project Reach, which delivers warm meals, toiletries, and clothing to the homeless, originally started in Baltimore, Maryland, and later transferred to Atlanta. Her bakery received the Best of Georgia award for 2025. Erica is a member of Black Women in Weddings. She attributes her success to a strong work ethic instilled by her mother, along with integrity, consistency, and a commitment to excellence. Erica values family, work-life balance, and maintaining firm, knowledgeable communication in her male-dominated field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Erica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute that to my mom, instilling great work ethic. Sometimes you'll have people that are more qualified on paper, but they won't outwork me. I give everything in a spirit of excellence. When I log in to do my work, I work thoroughly. I take my job serious, and I think that's helped me. And then I think character. When I started litigation, again, I had no experience in litigation at that point. I was just doing bodily injury claims in my character. I think when you are known for being a consistent person, a person that operates with integrity, and a person that they know is going to put their best foot forward, it can get you indoors that education, you know, experience, and other things can't.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Do what you love and be very good at it. I remember my mentor, Natalie, told me. Don't ever take a job solely based on the salary. Because money won't make you unmiserable. Find a position that you love, and master it, and excel at it, and opportunities and advancement and money will find you. And that was the most profound thing I'd ever heard, because she was exactly right.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Learn the business. Not just get into a habit of learning your part of it. Always seek to learn the newest information, the newest rulings, the newest judgments, to stay abreast of everything current, so that you're educated and you can excel. Know your stuff. Be firm and direct in your communication so you're not overlooked. You cannot be passive and timid. You can be friendly and soft, but you do have to be firm about communicating with people.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Family, integrity, consistency are very important to me. My family. And having a work-life balance is super important to me. My husband and I both work a lot of hours, but we always set time aside to sit down at the table as a family and have dinner. We always book off one weekend a month where we can really just do something together. It's important to have family time to connect with each other. I believe that you should be honest, you should be trustworthy. And you should always do your best to put your best foot forward in anything.
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