Sonja Spruiel is Alera Group’s Ancillary, Statutory and Specialty Product Leader. She has over 30 years of experience in employee benefits including ancillary benefits, absence, paid family and medical leave programs and property casualty.  Since 2012, Sonja has been heavily focused on state mandated paid family and medical leave programs and has been very involved in emerging paid family & medical leave programs as more and more states have been passing these laws. Prior to 2021, New York, New Jersey, California, Hawaii and Rhode Island were the US states with a mandated Paid Medical and/or Family Leave requirement.  Massachusetts became the first emerging “new” state to pass a paid family and medical leave law that began in 2021. Since then, multiple states have passed similar laws; Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, District of Columbia, Washington and as of 2025, Delaware, Maryland, Maine and Minnesota are all implementing their own paid family & medical leave laws to begin in 2025 and 2026.  Sonja enjoys working with employers to educate them about the requirements, nuances and state allowed options as well as provide experiences as the various states have joined the PFML map across the US.