2026 National Staffing Employee of the Year Nichole Dubil, senior copywriter with Cella by Randstad Digital.
As a marketing director for a rapidly expanding health care company, Nichole Dubil wore many hats and traveled constantly while working closely with physicians and organizations nationwide. But in 2021, she needed a change. Exhausted from juggling a busy career while raising teenagers and mourning the loss of two close family members who had died in consecutive years, Dubil opted to freelance—hoping for a chance to do meaningful work in the health care industry while bringing balance to her life.
The relentless pace “was something that didn’t align with what I wanted for my family,” says Dubil, the 2026 ASA National Staffing Employee of the Year. “I didn’t want them to remember that I wasn’t there.”
In 2021, Dubil partnered with staffing firm Cella by Randstad Digital and soon landed a position as a senior copywriting contractor for Quest Diagnostics, where she helps turn complex medical text into information that is “clear, accessible, and human.”
Jamie-Lynn Simon, Dubil’s recruiter, says she was struck by Dubil’s “personality and presence from the moment we met.”
“Nichole is a wonderful person through and through,” Simon says. “She’s professional, open, and clear in her communication. In my experience, I can’t remember a time where a client has spoken so highly of a freelancer or contractor.”
ROOTS OF RESILIENCE
Dubil’s path to the stage at Staffing World® in October was a testament to what Simon describes as her “perseverance and strong work ethic”—traits she developed while growing up in “extreme poverty” in a small southeastern Ohio town. Dubil is circumspect and “protective of that part of [her] life,” but credits her mother, who pursued higher education with four children, and the stepfather who raised her after her parents divorced.
“An incredible, incredible woman. I could not even hold a candle to her,” she says of her mother. “When she married my stepfather, he was a bachelor without any children, and he took us in as his own—and he took it like a champ. I ended up becoming so close to him.”
Dubil’s stepfather enjoyed writing poetry and had “shelves and shelves of books” that he encouraged her to read. That nurtured her lifelong love of writing. “From the time I could hold a pencil, my parents would ask ‘What do you want for Christmas?’ and I would tell them a stationery set,” she says. “I asked for that almost every year.”
Her mother and stepfather, who had two children of their own, later welcomed two of Dubil’s cousins into what became a household of 10. “Together, they were a powerhouse,” she says. “They showed me family doesn’t have to be defined by blood.”
“We had children in the house on top of the eight,” she says. “If one of our friends was in a tough situation or a dangerous household, my mom would invite them in. They fed everybody, and I don’t know how they did it.”
Dubil started her career as a marketing intern for a distribution company in West Virginia, eventually rising to marketing director. She took time off to raise her children—Eli, now 22, and Elaina, 18—when she moved first to Maryland, then to Pittsburgh.
“While I was staying at home, I never lost my skill set,” she says. “I continued to do volunteer work and stayed up-to-date on technology, because you wake up the next morning and it’s changed—and I knew I eventually would return to work.”
In Pittsburgh, Dubil joined a medical technology company as a marketing director, then was part of a team that helped start a spinoff company. Dubil calls the jobs a “fantastic experience,” but she was shaken by the deaths of her stepfather in 2019 and her grandfather the following year. Staying at home during Covid further shifted her mindset. “I just didn’t want to maintain that pace anymore,” she says.
When Dubil decided to freelance and work from home, she sent her résumé to Cella by Randstad Digital, which recruits digital, creative, and marketing professionals for contract, temp-to-hire, and direct roles.
“I didn’t know anything about Cella at the time,” she says. “I just thought it looked great and that I had the background for it. But I needed to make sure that it was the right fit.”
Dubil met with Simon and other members of the Cella by Randstad Digital team. Within six months, she was hired as a contractor by Quest’s Greenhouse division.
“We got her the interviews and got her in the door there and they absolutely loved her,” Simon says. “As her recruiter, I checked in and made sure she was happy in the relationship, and over time we got to be very close. We’ve had a great working relationship throughout this time.”
Carrie Supancic, Greenhouse’s director of brand identity and creative services, says Dubil was initially hired as “an extra set of hands” but has been so successful that she has “become part of the team in every way.”
“Nichole has gone from working 10 to 12 hours a week to working pretty much full time for us,” Supancic says. “She’s passionate, she’s dedicated, and she has a great feel for our customers and consumers. We’ve come to rely on her and trust her judgment completely.”
It is “very rare” to have a client who keeps a freelancer on for as long as Quest has with Dubil, Simon says. “We do a lot of freelance work and freelancers tend to come and go. They find different jobs, they get sidetracked, or they don’t prioritize clients the way they should. And Nichole does,” Simon points out.
Supancic says Dubil has forged strong relationships with Greenhouse’s project managers and creatives “so there’s a real sense of collaboration and working together to find the best solution for what the client is seeking.”
“Nichole is especially gifted in identifying and speaking up to ensure we are staying true to the creative brief, acting as a client advocate in a way,” Supancic says. “She’s been able to build and really carve out a sense of trust on the Quest consumer marketing team with her knowledge and expertise. People want to know her perspective on things.”
Dubil says she is always looking to answer the “why” question. “Being able to communicate test results clearly and in a way that provides you with answers about your health concerns is important,” she says. “I’ve seen writing that is just copy; I’m always trying to deliver information in a thoughtful, intentional way to patients, health care providers—whomever we’re trying to reach. The words have to connect and mean something.”
THE GIFT OF TIME
Soon after Dubil started working in temporary staffing, her mother started complaining of hip pain. Always the caregiver and still living in a small Ohio town, she spent more than a year trying to find the cause.
“She went through physical therapy, chiropractic care, and a PET scan trying to figure out what this was,” Dubil says. “They don’t have access to the same level of health care like I have where I’m located, so I contacted one of my physicians in Pittsburgh and sent all of her information, including all of her PET scans and the tests that had been done six months prior.”
The news was grave: Dubil’s mother had Stage 4 ovarian cancer. She chose to receive treatment in Pittsburgh to extend her life, but died on Mother’s Day in 2024.
“I was very thankful that I was able to be so aligned with Quest and Cella, because working remotely gave me the opportunity to help my mom go through treatment and extend her time,” says Dubil. “My sister Emily was her main caregiver, but I was with her for all of her appointments and treatments.”
She pauses, becoming emotional. “They gave me the gift of time to be with my mom as she closed out her story here; that’s something I’m forever grateful for. They could have said ‘no.’ There are contractors out there who don’t have this going on in their lives, and they could have chosen someone else. And instead, they gave me the gift of more time with my mom.”
When Dubil was at one of her lowest points, Simon and her team at Cella by Randstad Digital nominated her for the National Staffing Employee of the Year award.
“When we told Nichole that she had won the award, she was just so taken aback,” Simon says. “She deserved this—but she didn’t seem to process that she did. Being at Staffing World was such a whirlwind for her, and that was really refreshing to see her get so much praise and recognition—especially given everything she’s been through. It was really, really nice to see.”
Dubil says she tears up when she starts thinking about the award. “It’s just overwhelming. I couldn’t wait to tell my son and daughter, but I could not get the words out. It’s still hard to say,” she says. “I’ve never worked to win any type of award. I’ve never worked because I wanted anybody to recognize me. I know the work I do every single day matters. It matters to somebody—and that’s all I’ve ever needed.”
is a professional writer who has covered a wide range of business and education topics. He also is a prolific photojournalist, having created award-winning article and photography packages for national publications.
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