Stephanie moved with her father from Massachusetts to the PNW just in time to start her sophomore year at Newport High School. After about a year, her father’s employment required him to move out of state. Stephanie was faced with the choice to either move once again, or to stick it out here in the PNW all by herself. As the beginning of her junior year of high school drew closer, Stephanie made the tough decision to stay, finish high school, and go on to work and establish herself in the Seattle area.
Stephanie started her career in the Staffing and Recruiting industry in 1998 where she worked as a temporary associate, performing accounting and administrative duties at several Fortune 500 companies. While trying different companies was exciting, she learned quickly that being employed as a temporary worker presented a wide range of challenges as opposed to her full-time employee counterparts. Stephanie believed that she could help mitigate some of these challenges by becoming a recruiter herself. Stephanie took her first recruiting role with an international staffing firm in Bellevue where she focused mostly on clerical and accounting roles. After a few years of being a branch recruiter she was presented an opportunity to run a client onsite account at the 7-11 Distribution Center in Auburn. This is where Stephanie’s love for the distribution and logistics world began to blossom. In this role, Stephanie was stationed at the client site where she was responsible for managing the day-to-day staffing needs of the client, and even helped navigate the client’s operational endeavors alongside the client supervisor. This gave Stephanie an inside look at how a staffing firm can not only help the associates it employs, but also how a staffing company can truly form a “partnership” with its client companies. In 2006, Stephanie joined SmartTalent, a local and privately owned organization, where she knew she could bring her experience and ideas to help build the best Staffing Firm in the PNW. Stephanie began her illustrious career with SmartTalent first as a Business Development Manager. From there, Stephanie continued to progress through the ranks serving as a Branch Manager, then as the Operations/HR Manager, the Director of Operations and now as the Company’s Vice President of Operations.
SmartTalent joined TCT in 2015, and shortly thereafter Stephanie joined the TCT board in the following year. Right away, the other TCT board members knew they had gained someone special. Stephanie immediately jumped right in. Drawing on her past experience, she began her service by taking over the bookkeeping responsibility for the club. Shortly thereafter, she joined the executive board, which ultimately culminated with her TCT Presidency in 2020, which turned out to be quite the year! Currently, Stephanie is the TCT’s committee chair for the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma Habitat for Humanity, and Emergency Food Network’s repack events. Stephanie helps with every TCT event and genuinely enjoys contributing to, and being a part of the club’s giving spirit.
Stephanie’s desire to help others is not limited to her work with the TCT, in fact, she is actively involved with other volunteer work with organizations outside of just the TCT charities. According to Stephanie, the work she finds most rewarding and impactful is the assistance she provides through “CASA” (Court Appointed Special Advocate), for which she is a volunteer advocate. In this role, it is her responsibility to try to represent the best interests – and advocate on behalf of – children and other minors who are involved in legal proceedings related to abuse or neglect.
As if she didn’t have enough things going on already, Stephanie also serves on the Business Advisory Committee for Tacoma Community College. As an avid golfer herself (and maybe in a valiant attempt to mix business with pleasure) Stephanie also sits on the board of directors for the Riverbend Ladies Club, and is a tournament chair for the GSWPGA. Stephanie is engaged to Sam Thomas, and the wedding is currently being planned for September of this year. Stephanie is also a dedicated godmother, a loyal friend, and a very generous and valued member of the Transportation Club of Tacoma!
For her contributions to the TCT, transportation industry and our community; the 2021 Person of the Year Award goes to Stephanie Ticknor!
PAST WINNERS – Person of the Year
- 2020 – Dan Fay
- 2019 – Lori Kincannon
- 2018 – Vince Sanitago
- 2017 – Gary Gieser
- 2016 – Tim Flood
- 2015 – Greg Unterbrink
- 2014 – Janice Wasson
- 2013 – Terry Thomas
- 2012 – Michael Oliver
- 2011 – Carla Martin
- 2010 – Jeff Clark
- 2009 – Hugh Carr
- 2008 – David Ottey
- 2007 – Steve Fullerton
- 2006 – Gary Gieser
- 2005 – Dennis Dean
- 2004 – George Osborne
- 2003 – Mark MacLeod
- 2002 – Ross Cook
- 2001 – Jim Stanaway
- 2000 – Bob Dewey
- 1999 – Lee Braach
- 1998 – Stan Levy
- 1997 – Anne Muñoz
- 1995 – Ken Collins
- 1994 – Rick Bunn
- 1993 – Patti King
- 1992 – Lindsey Johnson