Our staff and consultants page provides the opportunity to review the experience and expertise available through Chaff & Co.

Linda Chaff

Linda Chaff is President of Chaff & Co. Her career combines elements of organizational development, which includes five years in the FBI’s LA Field Office Laboratory, ten years’ experience as director of protection services for a medical facility, three years’ in Europe as event planner and concierge. These positions helped her build on her interest in business development. Linda has served as the Disaster Action Team Director for the American Red Cross in Monongalia County, West Virginia, where she developed a comprehensive disaster action team training program and trained volunteers to work at disaster sites. She also served on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) national committee for healthcare emergency preparedness.

Credits include the Russell L. Colling Literary Award and appointments on committee and board positions with safety and civic councils, including the executive committee of National Safety Council’s Health Care Section. Linda has worked with the American Hospital Association, ASHE, and ASHRM on a number of successful projects. She participated in AHA’s video conference, Confronting the Risk: Hazardous Materials and Hospital Liability. In the early 1990s, she served as the technical writer on ASHE’s executive report on emerging trends in healthcare and project editor of ASHE’s Effective Health Care Facilities Management. Upon moving to Chattanooga from Chicago in 1991, she chaired ASHRM’s regional chapter and initiated and carried out a marketing campaign that increased positioning, membership, and meeting participation five fold.

Linda grew up on a farm in Washington state. Before there was an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), her father experienced a debilitating injury, losing two fingers on his left hand while operating an unguarded saw to cut heavy logs. This experience, and the stories about her grandparents who suffered disabling workplace injuries, set her on a similar journey as Bernardino Ramazzini, MD, and Alice Hamilton to try to ensure that everybody’s husband, father, grandfather, wife, mother, and child can be in a workplace that is healthy and safe.

Charles Sexton

As a master motivator, with over 15 years of hands-on management experience, Charles stimulates participants into creative productive thinking!

With an education in psychology, he has spent years discovering why, in the business world, people do the things they do.

As a formerVice President of Human Resources at one of the largest health care systems in the world, Charles gained the opportunity to train thousands in many areas of employee and business development.

This highly sought-after speaker brings to each session his own blend of humor and good old common sense that you won't soon forget.

Joan Hetzler

Joan Hetzler is a technical writer and editor. She holds a B.A. from Emory University and has over 14 years experience as a technical writer for software companies and as a free lance technical writer. Joan’s talents include organizing and simplifying complex, technical material into succinct and accurate material.

The author of two successful poetry chapbooks, Joan brings creativity and insight into her work. Her writing has won awards in writer’s conferences in playwriting, nonfiction, humor and poetry. She brings these diverse writing skills to Chaff & Co. to create interesting, readable manuals and company literature.

Joseph McFadden, CHSP, MT

Joe McFadden is President of McFadden and Associates, safety and health consultants in Denver, Colorado. Joe is a dedicated professional who has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, general industry and the construction industry.

A former director of industrial hygiene, safety, workers’ compensation and environmental health at major healthcare facilities, he teaches OSHA compliance courses and courses in the chemistry of hazardous materials at Red Rocks Community College in Colorado.

Joe also consults with medical and dental laboratories, educational facilities, and medical practices and clinics to help them prepare for regulatory/compliance agency audits.

Joe conducts training sessions for businesses and medical facilities and frequently speaks at seminars around the country. In addition to publishing articles in his field, Joe contributes his expertise and conscientiousness to help Chaff & Co. maintain its standard of excellence in books and manuals.

Denise Reed

Denise Reed is at your service as a project manager and organizer. Her career span includes several industries including hospitality, real estate, manufacturing, and retail. Her bachelor’s degree in business and associate’s in advertising have been used extensively throughout her career. Denise has an affinity for involving all the senses, working with teams and technology to bring the “big picture” into every possible aspect of a project. She understands the vital role hospitality plays in bringing people together for a common goal. She knows the difference “little things” make. She realizes the more “connections” there are in a project, the stronger the message and greater the buy-in.

As Chaff & Co.’s project manager, her work experience includes simple to complex multi-dimensional concierge services; management of business related requests for clients; and various aspects of advertising from management and design to vendor execution. Her focus is to listen to a client's needs and execute their wishes. Clients consider her their professional genie. If she doesn't do it, she knows whom to call within her gracious and experienced support staff.

Some client requests include a simple surprise lunch for one to a full blown event for hundreds of guests. She finds the "right" location, and manages all the "bells and whistles" which include personalized invitations, entertainment, audio visual equipment, signage, itineraries, decorations, flowers, party favors, transportation, hotel reservations and the service is only limited by imaginations. She looks for ways to execute a client's theme, which could include a simple "we appreciate you" to "buy our product," in every aspect of the client's request for assistance.

Her credits include President, and Vice-President for Women in Tourism Services, and Program Chair, Courtesy Chair, and serving on volunteer committees for Executive Women International-Chattanooga Chapter. She was an active member of Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International. As a key team member, she became editor of the corporate quality improvement and quality engineering newsletters with corporate wide distributions through out Shaw Industries, Inc. one of the nations leading international carpet manufacturers. She won the chance to exhibit her artwork, and have it published in the “Phoenix.” She also won a billboard design competition while attending Chattanooga State Technical Community College. She also won First Place in Chattanooga’s Hunter Museum Art Scene Contest. At Chaff & Co., her understanding of people regularly wins client accounts, boosts sales, and wows participants.