Click Here To Listen Nashville Business 100 Leading African Americans Marlene Sanders
Marlene L. Sanders is the associate director for State Government Affairs and Policy for Merck & Co. She works in the southeast where she leads state government lobbying, engagement and outreach for the company in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky and North Carolina. She most recently served as Chairman of the Legislative Task Force for PhRMA, The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association in Tennessee where she led the biopharmaceutical industry’s efforts at the legislature.
Marlene has called Nashville her home since 1993. In that time, as she developed her career in state government and politics, she also volunteered, supported and served on the boards of several state and community groups. These include Planned Parenthood, Better Decisions, Nashville Cares, Susan G. Komen of Middle Tennessee, Tennessee Kidney Foundation, Women in Numbers, the Women’s Political Collaborative of Tennessee and the MTSU Friends of Liberal Arts Board. She is currently a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter, Think Tennessee, The TSU, Meharry & Fisk Faculty Breakfast Club and the Nashville Women’s Breakfast Club, a professional networking and business development group for women, where she serves as Vice –Chair.
Marlene earned her Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master’s of Public Administration from Tennessee State University. She plans on completing her Master’s of Arts degree in English from Southern New Hampshire University in May.
Marlene began her career in politics as an intern at the state legislature where she worked in the legislature’s finance ways & means committee office. She completed her internship, and then her degree and went to work for Smith Johnson & Carr lobbying firm as an assistant. Earning progressive responsibilities and promotions, she began representing different clients of the firm. She was recruited to work for one of those clients, Eli Lilly and Company which began her career in pharmaceuticals. She worked with Lilly for six years before beginning her career at Merck.
At Merck, she has been privileged to work across the southeast, and was chosen as a Master’s Award winner in 2015, the company’s most prestigious award. In 2016, she was chosen as an MSD Fellow for Global Health, allowing her to spend three months in South Africa serving Project HOPE South Africa, an NGO providing health care to underserved communities there.
Marlene was born in Ooltewah, Tennessee and is proud to have grown up on Sanders road. In her spare time, she loves travel, her Book Club, Kuumba Nia and her dinner group, The Dames.