After graduating from University of Illinois-Champaign, Sheila Feipel moved to France for two years and later worked as a French teacher. She switched to the technology industry in 2000 and has been the Springfield branch manager for Heart Technologies since 2015.
Feipel is extensively involved in the Springfield community and has been a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters for many years. She has also been involved in professional organizations such as Illinois Women in Leadership and received the organization’s Athena Award in 2016.
Where were you born and raised, and what was your first job?
I was born and raised in Peoria, and I started working a year earlier than was legal at a local Dairy Queen.
How did you decide to make a career of technology services?
I moved to Springfield after being a French teacher, and I’d still be a French teacher if it weren’t for a few things like shelter and food. Anyway, I went to a job fair, and the owner of a local company chased me down when I didn’t go to his booth, and he said, ‘You need to apply for a job at my company.’ I got hired the following Monday, that was in the year 2000.
Should people fully embrace technology, be wary of it or both?
Both, without a doubt. Technology helps us in our daily lives; it’s more efficient for companies and people. But there are some bad actors in the world that unfortunately make it also very risky. I’m especially wary of all social media, I think it has had a very bad effect on our youth. I think that you should not have a smartphone until you are at least 15 years old. I think our government is doing great harm to our communities and families by not regulating social media.
The firm you work for specializes in security for the education and health care industries. How challenging is it to help these industries protect their data?
It’s very challenging because as soon as we know of a certain hack, someone else is doing another one. You’ve got to stay on top of it. We use the best technology companies, cloud companies, to monitor 24/7 and then we can push that out to our clients and protect them. But it’s an ongoing feat for sure.
What do you wish people realized about securing their personal data and electronic access?
You really need to take all the steps that you can to protect your data because your phones have already been accessed. You need multi-factor authentication. If there is an opt-out of certain sites, or phone controls that you can put in place, you need to take those steps.
Has the trend of working remotely presented security challenges?
It’s even harder to protect your data when you’re working remotely. We’ve moved a lot of people to the cloud for their data and their phones and that has helped propel our business.
What about the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence?
That’s another one that I’m very wary of. It’s just data collecting and then spitting it back out. On the internet there’s all kinds of information, some very valuable and accurate and some very misleading and harmful. So it’s an advantage because it’s going to create new jobs – it’s going to help people – but it’s also very risky.
What equity challenges are still there for women in the workplace, and how do we address them?
Women still make, I believe, 76% of what a man makes in the same position. Yet more women graduate from college than men, and more women graduate with higher degrees than men. I’ve been fighting all of my life and here at age 60 I feel like our country is going backward. Hopefully, the next generation is going to see that going backward is hurting a lot of people, not just women and girls.
Why is it important to be involved in community and volunteer efforts?
Life is really very short, and we all have to make money. But what I think the pandemic showed us is that at the end of the day, what matters is helping people in your community to do better than they’re doing. You can’t take money with you, but you can be at peace with knowing that you helped advance humanity.
Do you have any advice for young people about to enter the workforce?
Information technology security is where it’s at.
What may people be surprised to learn about you?
I lived in Paris, France for two years, and I think that universal health care like they have there is a wonderful thing. And France has all the flora and fauna of the U.S. but smashed into an area smaller than Texas. It’s beautiful, and it has so much history.
This article appears in SBJ August 2025.