Butch Wardlaw

Butch is founder and president of the Wardlaw Group, Inc. Pursuing a life-long goal, Butch organized and focused the Wardlaw group team on the collective vision of "improving the art and science of interpersonal and organizational communication." As chief consultant and lead trainer for the Wardlaw Group, Butch provides a number of critical consulting, training, and facilitation services for clients. He is an expert in message strategies; media, risk, and crisis communications; and public outreach strategies. Throughout his career, Butch has served in a wide variety of leadership roles, both public and private.

Prior to forming the Wardlaw Group, Butch served as Vice President for Communications and Involvement and Training Services at WPI, Senior Project Manager for the Washington, DC office of DecisionQuest, and Communications Director for the Department of Defense Military Vaccine Program.

An expert trainer, Butch has conducted hundreds of training sessions for thousands of participants. His varied training audiences have included military service members, health care providers, risk managers, scientists, engineers, program managers, government leaders, corporate managers and executives, community outreach specialists, and public affairs specialists involved in health, safety, and environmental programs. Additionally, Butch has provided professional consultation and facilitation services for a wide range of clients including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U. S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the Military Vaccine Agency, Dairyland Power, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Vaccine Healthcare Center Network, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and several Fortune 500 corporations.

Butch has extensive experience in preparing spokespersons for interactions with the media. He has conducted media training for network executives and cast members at The Learning Channel, managers and executives from the Disney Corporation, office and division managers from the Food and Drug Administration, corporate managers and executives from Honeywell, military spokespersons, the senior leadership team and shift supervisors from Akzo Nobel Coatings, Inc., and many others.

Butch is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with 21 years of active service.  His versatile military background includes successful aviation command during the first Gulf War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, and a variety of key leadership and senior staff positions. He also served as Executive Officer and Acting Battalion Commander during Operation Restore/Continue Hope in Somalia and served as Chief of Staff of the 55th Medical Group (Airborne), where he led a staff of 50 officers, noncommissioned officers, and soldiers responsible for supervision of the largest airborne medical group in the U.S. military. He was twice awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally distinguished service.

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Patsy is a Senior Consultant with The Wardlaw Group, Inc. A long-time colleague of the company's founder, Butch Wardlaw, Patsy shares his collective vision of "improving the art and science of interpersonal and organizational communication." She performs a variety of key functions for the team including project management, technical communication, management consulting, and training services for clients.

Patsy is a seasoned professional with expertise in environmental management systems, quality assurance, and corporate communications, joined the Wardlaw Group in June 2006.

Patsy has more than 25 years of varied experience in the communications field. She has held positions in both corporate and technical communication, including Director of Corporate Communications for WPI, Inc., Editor/Photographer for the internal newsletter for Hercules, Inc., and Environmental Management System (EMS) project manager. Complementing her communication experience is her expertise in developing, implementing, and auditing of ISO 14001 EMS, ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems (QMS), and Nuclear Quality Assurance (NQA). In addition, Patsy is experienced in training program development, in both Web-based and group presentation formats. Patsy has developed documentation and training courses for more than 30 areas/departments, providing EMS training to more than 1,200 client employees. She has also developed Web-based training programs that were completed by more than 25 employees.

Patsy is certified as a RABQSA Environmental Provisional Auditor. In addition, she is certified as a Professional Nuclear Quality System Lead Auditor and has performed more than 20 vendor supply audits. Patsy is also Senior Member of the American Society for Quality and has developed ISO 9000 conforming QMS.

Prior to joining The Wardlaw Group, Patsy served as a Project Manager at WPI, Inc. She also held several positions at Hercules, Inc. (operating contractor for Radford Army Ammunition Plant), including Plant Editor/Photographer, Quality Engineer, and Operating Procedures Writer.

Patsy has developed hundreds of technical documents ranging from simple "how to" procedures extensive plans regarding Environmental Management and Controls Public Involvement. Her professional consultation support services have helped a wide range of clients including the Alliant Ammunition Energetics (contractor-operator Radford Army Plant), U.S. Corps Engineers, Norfolk District, various Department Defense facilities, Virginia Tech Environmental, Heath, Safety Office. Patsy's other included Energy (DOE) Office Science Technology DOE Environment, Safety, Health.

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Tonia Bohnen

Tonia is also a Senior Consultant with the Wardlaw Group. In her 10 years of professional experience she has demonstrated a thorough understanding of strategic communications and outreach; displayed keen insight into assessing and analyzing stakeholder needs, concerns, and requirements; shown an ability to overcome the inherent challenges of communicating technical information to nontechnical audiences; and demonstrated a high level of expertise in marketing communications.

Tonia Bohnen, an experienced professional with a strong background in marketing, outreach, and professional event management, joined the Wardlaw Group in July 2006.

Tonia's undergraduate degree in Marketing and Public Relations and her Masters degree in Communication provide a solid foundation for her work as a consultant and training coordinator for the Wardlaw Group. She has extensive field experience in marketing and outreach, audience identification, and strategic message development.

Prior to joining the Wardlaw Group, Tonia was a Project Manager for WPI, Inc. where she worked with Butch Wardlaw, Patsy Hosner, Evelyn Wight, and others currently serving as part of the Wardlaw Group team. While with WPI, Tonia managed projects for the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council and NASA Hubble Space Telescope research. Additionally, she served as training coordinator for the WPI training program, assisting with training preparation for more than 50 workshops involving over 750 participants.

Before joining WPI, Tonia was Marketing Coordinator for Taylor Corporation where she managed marketing responsibilities for 10 product lines serving national and international markets; coordinated corporate marketing user group meetings with participants from the United States and foreign countries; developed meeting sessions and facilitated meetings; and developed and maintained Web sites for specific marketing objectives from informational purposes to e-commerce activities.

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Jamaa Bickley-King

Jamaa is a Business Development consultant for the Wardlaw Group. Jamaa's passion for growing and developing companies has brought him to the Wardlaw group. He has been developing companies for over a year. He has excelled in developing strategic partnerships and profitable ventures. His savvy with relationships, data, people, and business trends are an asset to the Wardlaw group.

He was formerly a special assistant for the Governor of Virginia. During that tenure he worked on and completed various initiatives, projects, and duties in many different capacities for the Secretary of Administration, Secretary of Education, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Department of Education, Governor's office, the Virginia Geographical Information Network, the Department of Information Technology, and the Department of General Services. He has been involved finding and delivering solutions for legacy data issues, development of non-tax based funding models for statewide Administration initiatives, and facilitating the creation of a new government division. He developed a co-location program in an effort to consolidate IT resources. He also developed a method of pairing low performing K-12 schools with their closest high performing peer school. He also developed a system of mapping $32.5 billion dollars of the State's biannual budget at any given time. The same technology was used to develop a system to re-aggregate every piece of information collected by the Commonwealth by state House and Senate district.

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Melissa Wardlaw

Melissa is co-owner of the Wardlaw Group. An expert in business management operations, marketing, and accounting/finance, Melissa serves as the principal management analyst for the Wardlaw Group team.

Melissa has an MBA from Wright State University and 18 years of professional experience in a variety of leadership and management roles. For the past three years she has served as Senior Accountant for Disabled American Veterans (DAV). Additionally, she is a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserves with command and operational experience in a variety of assignments. Prior to joining DAV, Melissa was an Accountant for Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Over the course of her career, she has also held positions as Financial Analyst, Controller, and Marketing Associate.

Melissa has accounted for the finances of multi-million dollar corporations, managed complex projects, and led diverse organizations. Her combination of management acumen and leadership experience provides the foundation for sound business planning and financial management for The Wardlaw Group.

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Terry Cole

Terry is a Senior Consultant and Trainer with the Wardlaw Group. He has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of first amendment law, speech writing, public communication, communication training, and crisis and risk communication. He's areas of expertise include the areas of presentation communication and crisis and risk communication.

Terry combines an impressive academic background with hands on experience in the areas of crisis, media, and risk communication plus personal presentation/speech writing skills. He has authored several publications and presentations on these topics.

Most recently serving as a Professor of Communication at Appalachian State University, Terry has 35 years of experience in university communication instruction in public communication, speech writing, training and development and crisis communication. His administrative experience includes fifteen years as a Director of Forensics at Appalachian State University and ten years a Chairperson of the Department of Communication.

Terry also worked for six years as a consultant and trainer for C4CS. His courses included Crisis Communication, Risk Communication, Presentation Skills, Effective Question and Answer Sessions, and Media Training for corporate, not-for-profit and government clients.

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Evelyn Wight

Evelyn is a Senior Associate and trainer for the Wardlaw Group. She performs expert consultation services and delivers a variety of training courses for the Wardlaw Group team. Prior to joining the Wardlaw Group, Evelyn was a Senior Program Manager and Trainer for the Communications, Involvement, and Training business unit at WPI, Inc.

Evelyn is an expert in marketing communications and public involvement/outreach. She has developed and delivered training programs in technical and non-technical subjects throughout her career. Evelyn is also a skilled facilitator with experience in collaborative meeting planning processes and program evaluation.

Evelyn has been a senior consultant to federal government agencies on a number of high profile media issues involving disposal of nuclear waste, environmental cleanup, military base closure, and military biodefense vaccines. Her many and varied experiences provide a solid foundation for her training classes on communicating about risk-related topics and conveying messages through the media during times of crisis.

Evelyn has developed and delivered video-based training tools and interactive training programs using PowerPoint slides, video clips, and case study exercises. Course topics she has experience with include the following: facilitation, effective meetings, conflict management, customer service, strategic communication planning and evaluation, risk communication, technical communication, message strategy, and powerful presentations. She also has experience in collaborative training development and review. For example, for the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps Officers School, CECOS, she managed the review of three-day risk communication courses through a collaborative process with multiple Department of Defense agencies to ensure the course addressed the needs of federal personnel at installations worldwide. The curricula was reviewed, modified, and approved by the Interservice Environmental Education Review Board (ISEERB), a tri-service review board (Army, Navy, Air Force).

Evelyn actively coaches senior managers in human interaction, presentations, public and risk communication, and related leadership skills. She has worked with public sector and government organizations, and private sector companies nationwide.

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Janyce Rucker Wardlaw

Janyce is a television producer, writer, and on-air talent for the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. She also takes on freelance writing, producing, and media training projects and is a part-time associate/trainer for the Wardlaw Group. Janyce currently produces the Midwest regional feed for NBC from the network's affiliate feed service. This duty entails coordinating each day's Midwest regional news for dissemination to all NBC entities including affiliates, Dateline, Today, Nightly News and foreign and domestic clients. Janyce's experience ranges from field reporting and producing to writing and editing. She was the Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg, North Carolina bureau chief for network affiliate WECT during Operation Desert Storm, conducting interviews, shooting and editing tape, and transmitting live shots for news broadcasts.

Janyce has extensive writing and reporting experience both as a general assignment reporter and as an education beat reporter. Her range of story coverage includes the crash of US Air flight 1016 in Charlotte, presidential campaigns, the Susan Smith murder case in South Carolina, the 2004 Iowa Caucus in Des Moines, and the NCAA Final Four. She has written and produced marketing and training videos, written, produced and hosted live and taped broadcasts for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the City of Charlotte. As a media relations supervisor with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Janyce fielded media requests, published a weekly newsletter, served as a liaison between the superintendent and the media, and coordinated and executed special projects as assigned by the superintendent and his staff.

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Kevin S. Wardlaw

Kevin is a Photojournalist with 20 years experience. He is a veteran of television broadcast news with a wide range of related experience and expertise. In addition to his full-time profession, Kevin is a part-time, associate/trainer for the Wardlaw Group. Kevin is directly involved in the day-to-day development of a network affiliate's newscasts. He operates a digital camera, a gyro zoom stabilizer in order to shoot video from a helicopter, a microwave live truck, and a satellite truck. Kevin is also experienced in non-linear editing.

His news coverage experience is vast and varied and has garnered numerous honors and awards. Coverage includes presidential and senate campaigns, hurricanes and other natural disasters, travel and game coverage for NBA and NFL teams, high profile trials and daily breaking news. Kevin is a member of NPPA (National Press Photographers Association), CMPAC executive board (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Access Corporation) and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. chairing the fraternity's Political and Social Action Committee.

He has served as a guest lecturer for NABJ (National Association of Black Journalists) Student Forum and currently lectures at the Carolina School of Broadcasting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kevin's program credits include documentaries, special live and taped broadcasts, music videos, and training videos.

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