--- title: "Stephanie McDonald: Employee Spotlight" description: Where did you grow up? I was born in Washington, Illinois. When I was four years old, we moved to Black Oak, Arkansas, for two years. Then, we migrated to Paragould, Arkansas, where I live today.    Where did you go to school? I attended Greene County Tech for elementary and high school. Then, I […] image: https://blog.optusinc.com/hubfs/Employee%20Spotlight_Stephanie%20McDonald.png --- [Skip to content](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/stephanie-mcdonald-employee-spotlight#main-content) ![Optus-Logo-Blue](https://blog.optusinc.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets/Optus-Logo-Blue.png?width=100&height=13&name=Optus-Logo-Blue.png) - COMPANY - [WHO WE ARE](https://www.optusinc.com/company/) - [WHAT WE DO](https://www.optusinc.com/solutions-and-services/) - [CAREERS](https://www.optusinc.com/careers/) - [CONTACT US](https://www.optusinc.com/contact-us/) - SOLUTIONS - [CYBERSECURITY](https://www.optusinc.com/cybersecurity/) - [CLOUD COMMUNICATION AND CS](https://www.optusinc.com/cloud-communications-and-cx/) - [PHYSICAL SECURITY](https://www.optusinc.com/physical-security/) - [CORE CONNECTIVITY](https://www.optusinc.com/core-connectivity/) - SERVICES - [MANAGED SERVICES](https://www.optusinc.com/managed-services/) - [NATIONWIDE SERVICE DELIVERY](https://www.optusinc.com/nationwide-service-delivery/) - PARTNERS - [PARTNER WITH OPTUS](https://www.optusinc.com/partners/) - [PORTAL](https://optusinc.my.site.com/s/login/) - INSIGHTS - [RESOURCES](https://www.optusinc.com/resources/) - [BLOG](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog) - [EQUIPMENT RESOURCES](https://www.optusinc.com/equipment-resources/) - OPTX - [TECHNOLOGY SUITE](https://info.optusinc.com/optx-technology-suite) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # Stephanie McDonald: Employee Spotlight [user](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/author/user) March 17, 2023 10:30:00 PM CDT ![](https://blog.optusinc.com/hubfs/Employee%20Spotlight_Stephanie%20McDonald.png) **Where did you grow up?** I was born in Washington, Illinois. When I was four years old, we moved to Black Oak, Arkansas, for two years. Then, we migrated to Paragould, Arkansas, where I live today.    **Where did you go to school?** I attended Greene County Tech for elementary and high school. Then, I graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in corporate finance.   **Brag about your family.** I am blessed with a fantastic family and support system. My 77-year-old mother lives with me and is my best friend. I am also very close with my older brother and sister and their families. I have four amazing nephews and one niece. Two of my nephews and my niece are married, so I have two bonus nieces and one bonus nephew. I love them all dearly and am so proud of the people they are. I also have two dogs that rule the roost—Troubles and Coco.    **What do you do for fun?** I love traveling to new places and spending time with my family playing cards or board games. I also love a good movie or TV series, and I enjoy going to eat and shopping with friends. I attend Southside Community Church in Paragould.    **What was your first job?** My first job was during college. I was on a full scholarship for basketball and decided I wasn’t happy. I gave up my scholarship (man, the mistakes we make when we’re young) and transferred to Arkansas State University. At that point, I needed a job and started working at Panchos as a waitress. I went from having a free education to 100% putting myself through college.    **What is your dream job?** I love working with people and building relationships, and enjoy a challenge. My current role allows me to do all three. I’m blessed to be doing what I love.   **What quote/motto do you live by?** “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This sums it up. I don’t know how anyone navigates through this cruel world without Christ walking through it with them.   **Tell us your Optus story. When did you start, and what position? Have you moved positions/jobs?** I started working at Optus in June 2007 as an account manager. I actually turned down the job twice before they called me back to interview with “The Closer,” AKA Mark Duckworth. 🙂 After meeting with Mark, I decided Optus might be right for me. My first few years were challenging. I made a lot of calls, and I remember getting excited when someone would agree to let me send them pricing. I won over a few accounts by selling line cords (LOL). In 2013, I accepted a position managing associate account managers (AAM). At the time, this group served as a support role for the sales team and concentrated on learning the necessary skills to become a salesperson. I stayed in this role for about a year but missed the relationships and excitement of working in sales. So, in 2014, I transitioned to a hybrid role supporting enterprise accounts and began to rebuild my deck in the national space. During my first year in a sales role, I sold a 1.4 million dollar NEC phone system to one of my accounts—one I’d brought on a few years prior and continued to manage while leading the AAM team. Afterward, with a lot of determination and hard work, I continued to build relationships and bring on new customers. In 2017, I was promoted to Major Account Manager; in 2019, I stepped into the role of National Account Manager. Beginning this year, I am once again transitioning into a new position, Director of Strategic Accounts, to help advise and advance our core services, including IT project rollouts, help desk, professional services, network infrastructure, and field services. I am excited about the challenges ahead and my role in continuing to help our clients evolve their communication strategies.       **What is your official job title?** Director of Strategic Accounts   **What SHOULD your job title be?** Firefighter some days** 😉**   **Describe your day-to-day job.** My day-to-day responsibilities include working with enterprise-level customers to help them advance their workplace communications and technology infrastructure. I advise our customers on best practices and strategies to ensure their business technology is secure, agile, and offers the best customer and employee experience. Then, I work with our internal teams to ensure our customers receive the best service experience. I also analyze the market and look for other businesses that could benefit from our services.    **What is one thing that Optus does better than any other employer you have had in the past?** Optus has an open-door policy. I love that our leadership is always open to hearing us out. We can speak directly to anyone in leadership at any time and share our thoughts or opinions. I am not sure they always like it, but I do. 🙂    **Tell us about one learning or growth opportunity you have had while working at Optus.** I have been at Optus for almost 16 years and continue to grow and learn every year.   **What do you like most about working at Optus?** I love the people I get to work with and the relationships I have with my customers.   **Have you received recognition from Optus on a job well done? If so, what was the recognition?** Yes, I received the quarterly MVP award several times and Salesperson of the year for 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. (Edit: Stephanie won MVP again in January of 2023)  I also received the Optimum Employee of the year in 2017.   **What is your favorite part of the community Optus has cultivated?** We have great support here at Optus—from leadership to service delivery and everything in between. In sales, you can’t be successful if you don’t have a good team supporting your efforts. It takes everyone in the company doing what they do every day to keep our customers moving forward, and I love being a part of a group that makes things happen.    ## [**Interested in joining the Optus community? Check out our careers page.**](https://www.optusinc.com/careers/) [Employee Spotlight](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/tag/employee-spotlight) ## Related Posts ### [July 19, 2021 10:24:38 AM CDT Employee Spotlight | Kaity McLendon](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/employee-spotlight-kaity-mclendon) ### [December 29, 2022 10:47:47 AM CST Kevin Mays: Employee Spotlight](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/kevin-mays-employee-spotlight) ### [September 22, 2022 12:51:00 AM CDT Candice Moore: Employee Spotlight](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/candice-moore-employee-spotlight) ![Optus Logo](https://blog.optusinc.com/hubfs/Optus-Logo-Blue-02.png) - Company - [Who We Are](https://www.optusinc.com/company/) - [What We Do](https://www.optusinc.com/solutions-and-services/) - [Careers](https://www.optusinc.com/careers/) - [Contact](https://www.optusinc.com/contact-us/) - Solutions - [Cybersecurity](https://www.optusinc.com/cybersecurity/) - [Cloud Communications And CX](https://www.optusinc.com/cloud-communications-and-cx/) - [Physical Security](https://www.optusinc.com/physical-security/) - [Core Connectivity](https://www.optusinc.com/core-connectivity/) - Services - [Managed Services](https://www.optusinc.com/managed-services/) - [Nationwide Service Delivery](https://www.optusinc.com/nationwide-service-delivery/) - [End-Of-Life Technology Support](https://www.optusinc.com/updating-end-of-life-technology/) - Partners - [Partner With Optus](https://www.optusinc.com/partners/) - [Portal](https://optusinc.my.site.com/s/login/) - Insights - [Resources](https://www.optusinc.com/resources/) - [Blog](https://blog.optusinc.com/en/blog/) - [Equipment Resources](https://www.optusinc.com/equipment-resources/) - [Optus Events](https://www.optusinc.com/optus-it-events/) - OptX - [Technology Suite](https://info.optusinc.com/optx-technology-suite) © 2026 All rights reserved. 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