Our Team

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 Hosner

Patsy is the Wardlaw Group's Director of Operations and a Senior Consultant. 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. She joined the Wardlaw Group as the company's first employee in June 2006. With more than 25 years of varied experience in the communications field, Patsy has held positions in both corporate and technical communication, including Director of Corporate Communications for WPI, Inc., Editor/Photographer for Hercules, Inc. (former contractor-operator of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, a government-owned contractor-operated facility), and Environmental Management System (EMS) project manager. Complementing her communication experience is her expertise in developing, implementing, and auditing of ISO 14001 EMS and Nuclear Quality Assurance (NQA). In addition, Patsy is experienced in training program development, in both Web-based and group presentation formats. Patsy worked with the ATK Environmental Department in the development of EMS training for more than 30 areas/departments, which provided 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 has developed hundreds of technical documents ranging from simple "how to" procedures to extensive plans regarding Environmental Management and Controls to 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. Army Corps Engineers, various Department Defense facilities, Virginia Tech Environmental, Heath, Safety Office and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office Science Technology DOE Environment, Safety, Health.

Patsy 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 Quality Management Systems (QMS).

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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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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.