Diana Thomas, PRC, CTR (LION)
Diana Thomas, PRC, CTR (LION), is a seasoned recruiting and talent acquisition leader with more than 25 years of experience in full-cycle recruiting across multiple industries. She began her recruiting career in healthcare in 1997, supporting the hiring of nurses and certified nurse aides before expanding into specialized recruiting for engineers, administrative professionals, and corporate staff while working with OfficeTeam. Her career later expanded into manufacturing and aerospace recruiting during her tenure with Connexa, now IBM, where she supported hiring for software engineers, project managers, accountants, and HR professionals. Following the 2008 economic downturn and a layoff, Diana pursued higher education while raising her children, earning a Bachelor of Science degree with double majors in Elementary Education and Special Education from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 2016.
While Diana briefly worked in education, her passion for recruiting and workforce development ultimately drew her back to the talent acquisition field. For the past four and a half years, she has served as a Recruiting Supervisor at Skywalk Group, where she leads one of the organization’s largest client accounts. In this role, she partners closely with client leadership to develop recruiting strategies, optimize ATS workflows, improve time-to-hire metrics, and build high-performing recruiting teams. She is deeply committed to training and mentoring recruiters while driving performance, accountability, and exceptional candidate experiences. Her work focuses on building scalable recruiting solutions that align with business goals and workforce demands.
Diana is passionate about connecting people with meaningful career opportunities and helping candidates advance their professional and personal goals. She is nationally focused, recruiting talent across the United States, and takes particular pride in supporting diversity in high-demand fields, including encouraging more women to pursue careers in engineering and manufacturing. She holds Certified Technical Recruiter and Professional Recruiter certifications through the AIRS training program and is widely recognized for her ability to build strong client relationships, lead through change, and positively impact both organizational hiring success and individual lives through meaningful career placement.
• Certified Technical Recruiter
• Professional Recruiter Certification
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln - BS, Elementary Education and Special Education
• Autism Advocacy and Family Support
• Ronald McDonald House Volunteer
• Make-A-Wish Foundation Wish Granter
• TeamMates Mentoring Progam
What do you attribute your success to?
I think one of my success stories is that I have maintained that personal connection, and I get to know my candidates and what their goals are moving forward, so that I can help them in whatever way I can to achieve those goals. It's about being able to have a clear story of what their background looks like and where they're going in their future, so that I can relay that information onto the hiring manager that's possibly looking at them for a new role. I can give them the most valuable information as to where this candidate's coming from. That personal approach and really understanding each individual candidate has been key to my success in recruiting.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just remember to always keep that personal approach. There's a lot of great AI tools out there right now, which are very useful, and I myself use them every day in my job, but just remember that you want to always still make that human connection with these individuals. Every conversation should be very personalized, so that you can make that connection and learn more about that individual, as well as the client that you're working with or the hiring manager you're working with. Make sure that you keep that personal connection. Even with all the technology available today, maintaining that human element and truly getting to know people is what makes the difference in recruiting.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Balancing the use of AI tools with preserving human relationships, and the opportunity to recruit and support more women into traditionally male-dominated roles such as engineering and manufacturing.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Personal connection, helping others advance (impacting families' well-being), family, and community advocacy (notably autism support).