Todd McDonald, PHR

Todd McDonald has been in the human resource and training industry for over 20 years. He served as Executive Vice President for American Media Inc., where he worked for 10 years. In his tenure with AMI, he worked in multiple capacities including management of the product development, human resource, training, marketing, and sales areas.

In 1999, Todd left AMI and founded ATW Training & Consulting.

Thought of as being results-oriented, some of McDonald’s other accomplishments include:

• Developing and delivering training programs and speeches to audiences on a national and international basis.
• Creating over 500 off-the-shelf training products including audio, video, print-based and computer-based training programs dealing with subjects such as management, leadership, communications skills, legal issues, customer service and more.
• Authoring two books: one on communication between managers and their employees, I Wish You Would Just… and the other on time management, How to Find 100 Extra Minutes a Day.

McDonald speaks for organizations and groups on topics such as coaching, customer service, change management, time utilization, and leadership.

Max Gage

(Marchelle) Max Gage is a training and development professional in Des Moines, IA, who has been involved in the field for more than 18 years. She started her career at Meredith Corporation, then moved to several other local organizations before starting her own consulting business in 1997.

Gage completed her Master’s degree in Training and Development at Drake University in 1997. She went on to serve as an adjunct instructor in the program for several years.  She has been active in the local chapter of ASTD, where she served on various committees as well as on the Board.  She maintains her membership in the national ASTD.

The majority of Gage's experience has been in the classroom helping others with skill development in leadership, customer service, sales, presentation skills and other related areas. Her focus the last 5 years has been around leadership skills, in particular: coaching and feedback, conflict resolution, goal setting, setting expectations, performance management, dealing with different behavioral styles, generations in the workplace, Situational Leadership II, and team building.  She has worked with local companies as well as businesses around the country. Gage values "customers for life" and strives to meet the needs of each customer through various services.

Trayla Carter

Trayla Carter is a training and development professional who has been involved in the Human Resource and Training field for the past five years. She worked for for several central Iowa organizations helping to unleash the human potential of their companies and individuals. Organizations where she has worked include Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo and John Deere Credit.

Trayla completed her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 2001. Her training experience includes classroom training for a wide variety of participants ranging from non exempt employees to high level executives. She has facilitated training sessions on numerous topics including conflict resolution, values training, change management, and influencing. Her enthusiasm and energy create a classroom that enables learning.

At ATW, Trayla’s focus is on helping staff members and new managers become the best they can be. Her business experience combined with her Human Resources knowledge and training ability make her a strong training presence.

Cathy Belmont

Cathy Belmont's career as an organizational development professional spans 15 years. She is skilled in facilitation, course and program development, blended learning, and talent management practices and programs.

Cathy has a BA from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master's degree in Training and Development from Drake University. She has been active in ASTD and is a past president of the Central Iowa chapter.

Cathy works to create growing, partnering relationships. She has successfully coached and mentored individuals, designed management and leadership development programs supporting company goals, created skill-based staff career pathing and managed corporate performance management programs. She is dedicated to making a difference while contributing to enterprise-wide strategic and operational impact.

Jenny Lashier

Jenny Lashier is a corporate trainer specializing in business writing training for ATW Training & Consulting. For the past 11 years, Lashier has worked in the training and development field creating and delivering numerous training programs. She writes and presents training programs for public and corporate environments. While her passion is training P.O.W.E.R. Business Writing skills, she also enjoys teaching time management, team building, and meeting effectiveness.

Lashier learned the importance of education and contributing to her community from her parents, two public school teachers. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Public Relations from Kansas State University.

In addition, she possesses a Master’s degree in Higher Education from Iowa State University; her thesis work focused on students’ transition from college to work. She created a training program called ‘From Backpack to Briefcase’ to assist students in their transition from college students to members of the workforce. Thesis research inspired Lashier to author College Memories 101, a memory journal. She has since authored two more memory journals.

Cassandra Hage

Cassandra Hage brings a diverse management background to the ATW Training and Consulting Team.  Hage has spent more than 10 years in public administration in Iowa. As City Manager for two cities and as CFO for third Hage was responsible for managing significant budgets, resolving employee issues and overcoming controversy among many other items.

Hage left public employment for the experience of working with a private corporation.  As Vice President of Strategic Accounts for ISGN, a global technology company providing services to the mortgage lending industry, Hage worked with mergers and acquisitions, human resources, client relationships and customer service.

Hage founded 2 THE TOP – Career Advancement Strategies which is now a division of ATW Training.  2 THE TOP provides career development services on both an individual and corporate level. 

With ATW, Hage’s primary focus is to offer programming focused on issues facing corporations today such as retention, succession planning, recruiting and development of employee skills. Hage will also continue to develop individuals by providing one-on-one career coaching and other related career services.

Michael Davis

Mike Davis is a training and development professional who has been involved in the training field for the past six years. For eight years he worked for Wells Fargo & Company as an Account Analyst, Assistant Manager, Training and Development Specialist, Learning and Development Consultant, and Learning and Development Manager.

His training and leadership experience started in the US Marines in 1994. There he lead an Assault Amphibian Vehicle (AAV) Section in the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Upon being honorably discharged from the Marines in 1998, he attended the University of Iowa. During his studies in History, he joined the Iowa National Guard. Mike served as a Military Police Team leader for six years including a one-year deployment to Iraq.

Mike's training and development experience includes classroom training, interactive multimedia instruction and design, training needs analysis, training implementation, business line consulting and training evaluation.

Mike is dedicatied to showing a measurable impact to success through training. He also enjoys sharing his experiences and listening to others' leadership and management experiences while facilitating training.

Dianne Bunn

Since 1990, Dianne has worked with hundreds of corporations in virtually every industry, group size and with all levels of professionals, executives and unionized staff. Utilizing a combination of traditional, integrated and experiential training methods, she leads groups to identify and create practical, work-related strategies to enhance corporate performance.

Dianne has conducted a diverse range of programs including: leadership development, process improvement, sales training, personality inventories, effective communication, conflict resolution, teamwork, and change management.

Her commitment is to customize program sessions matching learning outcomes and objectives to the course curriculum in order to maximize the training benefits. Her passion is to empower groups to create personalized, applicable strategies with “Go Forward” solutions to create better work environments, morale and proficiency in achieving corporate goals.

Dianne is energetic, diverse and dedicated to seeing participants' work lives have greater proficiency, quality and purpose.

Dianne believes the single most effective action clients can do to improve work performance is to understand, accept and leverage individual differences. By working with clients she helps them embrace this concept, challenges their current status, and look for applicable solutions to implement these concepts into tangible, work-specific plans aligning with the company's values, mission and goals.

Karen F. Howe

Karen Howe is a human resource professional and training consultant with nearly 30 years of experience. She has held the position of Vice President – Human Resource Director for Home Savings Bank in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is now First Union/Wachovia. She most recently was responsible for Human Resources for Six Flags The Great Escape and was a Six Flags International recruiter and trainer – traveling Eastern Europe and Asia. Her background in HR has encompassed managing all areas of human resources, employee relations, EEO/Affirmative Action, Training & Development, as well as, having been responsible for employee and director stock option plans, has developed various corporate policies & procedures, compensation analysis, etc.

Karen taught human resource management at Florida International and St. Thomas Universities. She was responsible for curriculum design for FIU’s training and development certification program offered through the school of business. She was the recipient of the National Excellence Award and Most Distinguished Contributions for HRD (presented by the American Society for Training & Development) – She has presented at National conferences and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Michael A. Harris, Ed.D.

Dr. Harris received his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from St. John’s College, California. He continued his studies in Education at Mount Saint Mary’s College, California where he earned a Master’s Degree and a Life Credential in Educational Administration. He received his Doctorate in Education from Pepperdine University, California. He has also completed graduate work in Psychology and Counseling.

From 1971 to 1994 Dr. Harris served as teacher and administrator at several high schools. He has also served as a motivational speaker for groups ranging from seminars to arenas with 15,000 participants. Speaking engagements included presentations at college campuses, conventions, conferences and to private groups.

In 1996 Dr. Harris founded the Caritas Corporation, a non-profit organization which develops affordable housing communities for those on limited or fixed incomes. Caritas has grown to include 11 communities providing quality living for thousands of residents.

Dr. Harris left the Caritas Corporation to start the consulting firm of Trident LTD which focuses on education, business and multi-media production. In addition to his consulting work he continues to write programs for and give presentations to college students in the areas of leadership, college life, improving academic performance and other topics. His workshop on “Alcohol Awareness” has won national recognition. He is also developing an internet company which will provide programs to college students to enable them to maximize their success.

As a teacher and facilitator, Dr. Harris is working with ATW Training to provide training for the military.

Doug Van Beek, PHR, CPLP

Doug Van Beek has been in the human resources and training and development industry for over 7 years. During this time, he has held leadership positions with municipal government and private companies specializing in training and developing employees and unleashing human performance.

Van Beek currently works with ATW Training & Consulting on a variety of projects consulting with small, medium, and large organizations on both a national and international basis focusing on improving employee performance.

Being a results-driven professional, some of the accomplishments Van Beek is most proud of include:

• Developing and implementing an Employee Development Center for a local municipal government and a private insurance company and delivering training programs offered through the programs.
• Creating and presenting training programs for domestic and international companies.
• Serving as President for the Central Iowa Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.

Van Beek speaks on topics such as teamwork, customer service, communication, time utilization, and management. His engaging presentation style and practical training methods give participants practical tips and plans they can implement immediately.