Name and how long you have been in the industry
Jenn Nichols and I joined the HTM industry in March of 2011.
• Full Bio
o Jenn graduated from Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo in 2003 with a BS in Industrial Engineering and an MS in Engineering with a specialization in Integrated Technology Management.
o Upon graduation from Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo, Jenn started as an Industrial Engineering Management Trainee at UPS. Six months later, she was promoted to Industrial Engineering supervisor, responsible for time studies, projects, volume projections, delivery efficiencies, and operations improvements. After five years, Jenn was promoted to Industrial Engineering Transportation Manager. She led the team responsible for planning and executing consolidation plans for outbound packages by air, ground, and rail in Los Angeles.
o Jenn’s career took an unexpected turn when a mentor called to ask if she was ready for a new challenge: applying her Industrial Engineering skills to Clinical Engineering. After considering the opportunity and shadowing a Clinical Engineering manager for a week, she decided to launch her career at TRIMEDX.
o Jenn’s career at TRIMEDX started as a manager in training at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital in the greater Los Angeles area. Within six months, she was promoted to Site Manager. She was soon asked to accept additional responsibilities as the Southern California Lab Modality Manager in addition to her role as Site Manager. She quickly became a resource for training new managers and accepting additional responsibilities. Through her leadership, the site was extremely successful in training the team members and transitioning the work to the in-house technicians, which resulted in over 93% of the work being performed in-house, including imaging and building a Best-in-Class program.
o After her demonstrated results, Jenn was promoted to Director of Clinical Engineering for Sacramento and North State in 2015. Her efforts over the 4.5 years as the Director included rebuilding the leadership team, creating innovative solutions for service delivery, improving the repair turnaround time by an average of five days, improving PM completion by 25%, maintaining a continuously ready program for regulatory surveys, which resulted in zero findings during her tenure, and drastically improving the Net Promoter Score for her region by 40 points.
o In 2020, Jenn had the opportunity to transition to the Director of the Integration Management Office. She led the integration of mergers and acquisitions, led the multi-faceted implementation for two of TRIMEDX’s Top 10 customers, and completed continuous improvement projects to improve savings for the customer and streamline internal processes.
o After a year and a half as Director of the Integration Management Office, Jenn was promoted to Division Vice President in June 2021. As Division Vice President, Jenn and the team worked to standardize processes and results delivery by completing strategic plans, individualized training plans for all biomeds, completed a SWOT analysis for the internal continuous improvement projects, focused on maturing the CE programs through education and communication, as well as creating committees to gather input from all levels.
o In October 2023, Jenn was promoted to General Manager of Clinical Engineering for the West Operations. As a General Manager, she leads a team responsible for clinical engineering operations, associate engagement, customer experience, and growth for over 30 hospital systems.
o In addition to her role as the General Manager at TRIMEDX, she contributes in other ways at TRIMEDX, including her leadership within the Women Empowered Associate Resource Group as the Executive Sponsor and previously in her roles as the Chair and Assistant Chair. She previously served as a committee member for the Annual Women’s Leadership Conference and continues to serve for the third year as a mentor through the TRIMEDX MentorXchange program. Outside of the formal mentoring program at TRIMEDX, Jenn mentors up to four women engineering students a year through Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo Women’s Engineering Mentorship Program.
o After her transition into the HTM industry, she felt it was important to show her dedication to the field and her career by obtaining a certificate from the University of Vermont in biomedical engineering, CHTM Certification in 2018 and CCE Certification in 2021.
o In her thirteen years of service at TRIMEDX, Jenn has been recognized for her contributions as the recipient of the Core Values Award- Service to the Poor in 2014, Manager of the Year Award in 2015, and Heart of TRIMEDX Award in 2021. She has also been recognized by SWE as the 2012 Distinguished New Engineer and Professional of the Year by CMIA in 2022.
o Although Jenn places a large emphasis on her contributions to her family and her role at TRIMEDX, she has found time to invest in the community. Over the years, she has volunteered at Holy Trinity Church in El Dorado Hills, served as the team treasurer for her daughter’s soccer team, and organized food drives for food banks in Sacramento and El Dorado County. As a leader, she has continued to include a service project during TRIMEDX team meetings. Two of the most memorable events are the “Refill the Shelves” Food and Supply Drive for the food pantry in Las Vegas and the “Kynd Kit” project, where the entire leadership team of thirty leaders created kits for foster children when they entered foster care. In one of the most recent CMIA conferences, she incorporated a Casino Night for Charity, where the proceeds of the event were given to a local food bank. She has also led multiple events to further the diversity in STEM fields through the Society of Women Engineers, and through her leadership, over 20,000 girls received hands-on education about engineering and careers in the field as part of the “SWEeter Futures” Program in which she co-founded.
o Over the last twenty years, Jenn has found continuous ways to give back to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and her alma mater, because of Cal Poly, SLO’s impact on her career and leadership journey. Throughout her time at Cal Poly, she was an active member of SWE and served as the student section president, culminating in the section’s award as the Best Student Section in the Nation. She has remained involved over the last decade as a member of the Cal Poly Women’s Engineering Industry Advisory Board, the Cal Poly Industrial and Manufacturing Industry Advisory Board, in which she was recently promoted to the Chair, and Chairs the Cal Poly Industrial and Manufacturing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Jenn is also a lecturer for IME 460 at Cal Poly, where she teaches and mentors a group of students during Spring Quarter about Supply Chain in Clinical Engineering.
o Since the day that Jenn entered the HTM field, she has been an advocate for increasing awareness of HTM and is vested in making a difference. She joined CMIA within her first month in the field as the Treasurer of the LA Chapter and has never looked back. Jenn has served as the President of the LA Chapter, CMIA State Chair for four years and the CMIA Conference Chair for 12 years. She has grown CMIA into an education-focused organization, introduced CEUs to education events, co-led the effort to create a new and innovative website, and increased the presence of CMIA Connect in the Industry.
o In the last five years, Jenn has expanded her contributions to include AAMI and ACCE. Her contributions to AAMI include being a member of the ACI CHTM Exam Committee and two terms on the ACI Board of Directors, including a year as Chair. In 2020, she joined the ACCE Book of Knowledge Committee, and in 2021, she became the chair of ACCE’s Book of Knowledge Committee. Her work on the committee includes multiple training sections for the CCE written exam, training sections on the CCE oral exam, authored multiple sections of the Book of Knowledge over the last four years, co-presented a webinar on how the CCE process, co-presented a webinar on how to prepare for the written and oral exam, and wrote a comprehensive report summarizing the results from the Clinical Engineering Knowledge survey.
o Jenn has demonstrated her tenacity, dedication, and desire to be a leader in the HTM industry. She has provided outstanding leadership and repeatable business results at TRIMEDX, in the industry associations, and in her community. Jenn Nichols is a dedicated servant leader who has made a difference over the last 13 years at TRIMEDX and within the HTM industry. She is always willing to go the extra mile and lend a hand, and she is very passionate about lowering the cost of healthcare. Jenn has provided leadership in all environments and has shown the tenacity to grow into an industry leader.
What is your biggest accomplishment and/or proudest moment of your career?
• A couple of moments stand out in my career.
o Obtaining a Certification in Clinical Engineering (CCE)
This accomplishment culminated years of learning, studying, and demonstrating a knowledge base in Clinical Engineering. As someone who joined the HTM industry with an engineering degree but no biomed experience, it was important to demonstrate to myself that I belonged in HTM and to those who said I didn’t.
o CMIA Professional of the Year -2024
This award was an outstanding moment for me in recognizing my impact on the HTM industry in California and for the California Medical Instrumentation Association (CMIA) for the last 12 years. It was humbling to be recognized among my peers.
o Society of Women Engineers- Distinguish New Engineer Award
It was a fantastic accomplishment to be recognized as one of the country’s top 5 new female engineers in 2012. I was extremely humbled to receive this award for my work contributions and community impact.
What does this TechNation Award nomination mean to you
• To have this category as an award is a testament to women’s impact in HTM and the influence women bring to the industry. To be nominated is humbling to be noticed for the work and time that I have contributed. To be listed among the other nominees for this award, many of whom I consider mentors, is so rewarding.
What can we do as Women in HTM to help inspire others in the industry?
• Inspiring others starts with being authentic and proud of our contributions as women. We can encourage other women to find their voice. We can serve as mentors and be available to have honest conversations. We can lift others by ensuring they have opportunities they never considered for themselves and supporting their career plans. We can share the field of HTM with high school and college students and let them know about the unlimited possibilities.
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