Sepi McDonnell

Coming out of college with a degree in sociology, Sepi McDonnell wanted a career that involved interacting with people. She quickly became interested in healthcare during her job hunt, which led her to her first job as a recruiting coordinator at a small, family-owned healthcare staffing firm.

She had an inclination toward technology, however, and found herself stepping up to handle technology issues that arose. When colleagues left that first firm to form Fidelis Partners in 2009, she followed and asked to be the one to choose and implement the processes and technology the firm would use and how the firm would interact with the customer base.

Thus began her role as CIO. In 2010, the firm merged with Medestar to become THMed, which was on the Fastest-Growing US Staffing Firms list in 2016, 2017 and 2018. A central part of that growth is the tech initiatives McDonnell put in place, which sped up the work processes, which in turn enabled the company and clients to focus on building relationships.

And it’s the relationships that excite her about staffing, because there aren’t many careers where you get to be a part of a lifechange for people, she says. When she’s not at work, she can often be found at events tied to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer.