Our Story

The Credentialist started as a husband and wife team and is built on a simple premise: providers deserve a partner who treats their enrollment like it actually matters — because it does. Over the years, we've noticed a common theme when taking over accounts from other credentialing firms: a lack of transparency, lack of accountability, missed deadlines, and providers being left out of the loop. It shouldn't be this way. Every day a credentialing application sits in limbo is a day a provider can't bill payers or grow the practice. Our mission is to close that gap, faster and with more accountability than anyone else in the industry.

Meet The Founders

Shelli Donaldson

Co-Founder · Director of Credentialing

PESC Certified CPES Certified

Shelli has spent years in the trenches of provider credentialing, working with medical groups of every size across all fifty states. She holds both the PESC and CPES certifications — credentials that, in a field where letters after your name reflect real tested expertise, mark her as one of the few specialists qualified to handle the most complex enrollment work end-to-end.

Her specialty experience spans some of the trickiest credentialing landscapes in healthcare: behavioral health groups navigating fragmented multi-payer panels, optometry and ophthalmology practices juggling vision and medical enrollments at the same time, and physical therapy clinics managing rapid expansion across multiple sites. Each of these specialties has its own quirks, its own quiet deadlines, and its own ways of going sideways — and Shelli knows all of them.

What sets her apart isn't just the certifications or the tenure. It's the relentlessness. Shelli outworks everyone in this industry. She catches the form fields others miss, follows up when others go silent, and refuses to let a file sit on someone else's desk. Combine that work ethic with sharp communication and an obsessive attention to detail, and you get the person you actually want handling the paperwork that determines whether your providers get paid.

Nathan Donaldson

Co-Founder · Head of Operations

Licensed Insurance Broker 10+ Years in Insurance

Nathan brings something rare to a credentialing firm: a decade of experience working inside the insurance industry itself. A licensed health and life insurance broker since 2015, he has served more than 1,000 satisfied clients across numerous states — giving him an inside view of how payers actually think, how policies really work, and where the system tends to break down.

That insider perspective shows up most clearly in his appeals work. When insurance companies deny provider claims, Nathan steps in to fight back — and over 80% of the appeals he helps submit result in the denial being overturned. That track record isn't luck. It comes from knowing exactly which arguments insurers respond to, which deadlines to weaponize, and where their reasoning typically falls apart.

At The Credentialist, Nathan partners with Shelli on credentialing while leading the business, technology, and provider services side of the firm. He's the architect behind the systems and processes that let a small, focused team move faster than agencies five times their size.

The Team Behind the Founders

Credentialers · U.S.-Based · Small on Purpose

100% American Team Small & Focused Owner-Trained

Behind Shelli and Nathan is a small, hand-picked team of U.S.-based credentialers — trained to our standards, held to our accountability, and empowered to own the files they work. We stay deliberately small because credentialing gets harder, not easier, when files pass through too many hands. Whoever answers your call knows your providers by name — not a ticket number in someone else's queue.

The Opposite of a Big-Agency Experience

We are a small team on purpose. The credentialing industry is full of large agencies that treat clients like ticket numbers, billing departments no one can reach, and timelines that quietly slip while providers wait in the dark. We built The Credentialist to be the opposite of that.

End-to-end speed

No files lost in queues. No silence between submission and approval. Applications move, and you see every step.

Next-level customer service

A real person who answers, knows your file, and follows through. Not a ticketing system and a generic inbox.

Unheard-of transparency

You always know exactly where every application stands. Real-time visibility through EnrollPilot, our proprietary portal.

Unbeatable pricing

Boutique service without the boutique markup. You shouldn't have to choose between quality and budget.

When you work with The Credentialist, you are not handing your providers off to a faceless team. You are working with owners who stay close to every account — backed by a small, hand-picked team trained to the same standard, who will personally make sure the job gets done right.

Ready to Work With a Team
That Actually Cares?

Book a 30-minute consultation and we'll walk you through exactly how we'd handle your credentialing — the same way we'd handle it if you were family.