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CONNECTING THE CHART MEMBER COMMUNITY
A MONTH OF MOMENTUM MAY 2026
VISIONARY TRAINERS TRANSFORMING HOSPITALITY
Boston Keynote: What You'll Learn from the Ninja Course
Experience a live-action masterclass in redefining high performance
What does it really take for hospitality teams to perform under pressure? To adapt, recover, and deliver service excellence again and again? You’ll find out live in Boston, as two elite athletes tackle a Ninja Warrior-style course right on the CHART mainstage. Every leap, slip, and recovery becomes a metaphor for how high-performing hospitality teams move, learn, and adapt together. Ty Bennett will use this powerful demonstration to challenge the old “grind harder” mindset. We can’t wait to walk away with a new perspective of what performance looks like in training rooms, on the floor, and across every guest interaction. Join us! Registration is open at chart.org.
Ty Bennett Speaker, Bestselling Author, and Entrepreneur
Hospitality Training 360 Report – Hot off the press!
Download the report today at chart.org > Training Tools & Resources > Training Trends Study Don’t miss these Hot Takes ✅ Learn how to make the case for budget increases ✅ Benchmark your program against industry peers You need to get this into your hands! CHART and Opus Training surveyed 190 L&D and operations leaders representing 30,000+ locations. Find out what they said in this go-to reference for Training & Operations benchmarks: ✅ See how L&D teams are tackling today’s biggest training challenges
Thank you to these fine folks who referred new attendees to the New Orleans Conference!
Brenna Worl Caitlin DuMars Jay Hartwig Carrie Martin Christina Gerome
Christina Heilig Tess Barsody Corban Nichols Dave Rozelle Dina Taher
Eric Mickelson Erin Flynn-Renner Heather Murray Jamie Herring Kathleen Wood
Kathryn Harris Kim Evans Missy McKinley Jillian Melton Nicole King-Smith
Nicole Marien Patrick Leonard Stacy Pedersen Stephen Gusman
Interested in Running for the ’26-’27 CHART Board of Directors? Email CHART’s President-Elect, Dr. Jennifer Belk White, Ed.D., at jenbelkwhite@gmail.com by May 15.
Welcome to Our New Silver Partners!
🎉
PresidenTalks What We Focus On Grows
Before I bought my RAV4, I never really noticed them on the road. Driving home in my new wheels, suddenly, they were everywhere. Was I a trendsetter? (Only in my mind.) The truth is my purchase rewired my brain to notice something that had been there all along. This isn’t a coincidence or your phone’s algorithm at work. Our brains are wired to recognize patterns. When we look for something, we start to see it everywhere.
Try this: think about the color red. Close your eyes for 30 seconds and really focus on it – the richness, the warmth. Now open your eyes. POW! Red suddenly pops, doesn’t it? (I first tried this exercise in a Chipotle, and if you’ve ever been inside one, you know how well this worked for me.) Your change in perception comes from a change in focus.* What we focus on, we give energy to. That can work for us or against us. The brain can trap us into a cycle of reinforcing what’s wrong, or it can train itself to recognize opportunity and possibility. The brain is especially good at this when it is being challenged. Learning something new forces it to rewire, which may explain why new hires are often much more open to feedback and change than our most tenured crew. We can use this intentionally in training. One simple way is Active Recall Testing . Instead of saving quizzes for the end of a module or only testing what was just taught, try spacing quizzes throughout training and pulling from everything they’ve learned so far. This helps the brain practice retrieving information, not just reviewing it, making that knowledge easier to access when it matters. Recently, the CHART Board has been discussing how we strengthen the impact of membership. At the same time, my team was book clubbing Lessons from the Drive Thru .** The final chapter, “Be Like Sandi,” highlights our 1990 CHART President, Sandi Spivey. Seeing her influence still shaping leaders decades later was exactly the reminder my brain was primed to notice. It reinforced something I already knew but needed to see again: what we focus on grows. So let’s choose to focus on learning, impact, and the difference our work continues to make. *For more on this and so many other amazing lessons, check out The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor and Activate Your Power by Eitan Sharir. **Another great book recco with real-world stories: Lessons from the Drive Thru by Monica Rothgery CHART President Kelly McCutcheon
Meet Your Boston Conference Team The spark behind Light the Way? These incredible volunteers! Get to know the people shaping the Boston experience, and hear their answer to an insightful question about what makes them shine. Q. Boston has a long history of lights that guide people, and in hospitality, we do the same. What’s one small habit you lean on that helps your team stay on track and elevates the guest experience?
I like to treat our colleagues as our own “internal customers.” It shows up in simple ways, like clearing a teammate’s plate at a group lunch, topping off someone’s water, or bringing a little “surprise and delight” into their day. It also shows up in how we communicate and respond to requests. We train our teams to “find the YES” for our guests, and I try to carry that same mindset into how I support my teammates. Instead of stopping at “I’m not sure,” I help find the answer or connect someone with the right person. I’ve found that these small, thoughtful moments of support keep hospitality at the center of how we work and remind us why we do what we do. It feels good to take care of others, and a happy team always carries through to the guest experience!
Activities Co-Director Morgan Kamensky Vice President of People Experience | Luke's Lobster
Activities Co-Director Kate Stiteler Director of Learning and Engagement | Sonesta Hotels
We promote internal recognition as a tool to help our teams stay on track and keep them motivated to provide great guest experiences; it’s called the CARE card program. In this program, managers and peers can write out specific feedback and share with each other. This allows team members to celebrate when they do something great - either for each other or for the guests who stay in our hotels. It’s a good reminder that hard work and good service don’t go unnoticed and to keep it up!
Member News
Andre Campbell , M.S.Ed., CHE, CLC, has been promoted to Senior Manager, Learning Programs & Innovation at Sandals Corporate University. Jackson Ernest is now Senior Manager, Event Strategy and Operations at the City of Detroit.
Kristy Gamble is now Learning & Development Manager at Blaze Pizza. Jessica Lecoq is now Training Development Associate Manager at Buffalo Wild Wings – Inspire Brands. Kim Aldrete is now Sr. Manager of Training at Dave's Hot Chicken.
Michelle Almada is now CX Training Specialist at Yaamava' Resort & Casino.
Anna Mason is now Director of Learning & Development at Edley’s Bar-B-Que.
Tiffany Perez is now Director of Training & Growth at Gyro Republic.
Dylan Bitticks is now Vice President - Ops Support & Training at Dave's Hot Chicken.
Julian Tolossa is now Franchise Training Manager at Dave's Hot Chicken.
Myisha Smith is now Director of Corporate Training at Parable Hospitality (formerly Pacifica Hotels).
Stephanie Bergeman is now Recruiting & Training Manager at Benchmark Hospitality at DU.
CHART Speakers at the National Restaurant Show 2026
Training Without a Training Department: Practical Strategies for Restaurants Sunday, May 17 @ 3:00 PM
Empowering New Hires to Thrive from Day One Sunday, May 17 @ 4:00 PM James Frank , Field Training Manager, Dine Brands Global (Applebee’s) Making Hospitality Hospitable (Again) Monday, May 18 @ 3:30 PM Audrey Benet , Associate Professor, Valencia College School of Hospitality & Culinary Management
Kim Evans Director of Training, Hopdoddy Burger Bar
Patrick Yearout Director of Innovation, Recruiting, & Training, Ivar's & Kidd Valley Restaurants
Corban Nichols Vice President of Restaurant Excellence, Piada Italian Street Food
Anna Mason Director of Learning & Development, Edley’s Bar-B-Que
Will you be attending the event? Email Tara at tara@chart.org so you can be kept in the loop about CHART’s activities there. CHART + IFBTA Reception will be held on Sunday, May 17 @ 6:30 PM at Centennial Craft Beer & Eatery. Email Tara for the invite.
Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers P.O. Box 2835 Westfield, NJ 07091 chart.org (800) 463-5918
Please send content to flipCHART Managing Editor | Lisa Marovec, lisa@chart.org Deadline is 1st of the month for the next month’s issue | Back issues: chart.org 👏 95 hospitality training professionals. 4 learning tracks. 1 commitment to growth. 👏
At the New Orleans conference, 95 achievers completed tracks in the Hospitality Training Competencies program. Congratulations to this incredible group of leaders for investing in their growth!
Trainer
Instructional Designer
Executive
Manager
TRAINER TRACK
Rudi Barrack Dylan Bitticks Angela Brena Shayna Cardillo Auggy Chan Dean Andrews Alisa Browning Alyssa Bunkley Carmela Crayne Sylvia Cruz
Kristi Comstock Charles Criswell Robin Deaton Brittany DiMarco Christina Gerome Marjorie DeRolf Zachary Detweiler Hannah Dinan Bryn Dineen Alexandrea Doyal
Stephanie Hobbs Kieran Kearns Emily Kuzma Matthew Lorbiecki Nicole Marien
Stephanie Matthews Shea McBride Jackie McCluskey
Mary Morey Heather Murray Whitney Norris Brent Peacock Taylor Petite Carolina Machado David Marquardt Anna Mason Jessica Shisler Michele Stoltz
Philip Pinkerman Vanessa Robinson Dara Rodney Todd Spadafore Tresa Wells
Jillian Melton Laken Moore
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER TRACK
Caitlin Dumars Lila Fernandez Gary Ford Jr Joseph Frahm Nate Hight
Janey Hobbs DeAnna Jones Morgan Kamensky Demitrie Knudsen Whitley LaMontagne
Kolin Thomas Megan Vasquez Crystal Wanke Jack Woznick
MANAGER TRACK
Lindy Bagby Carson Beans Nick Bitticks Elisa Cain
Stephanie Caswell Jake Chastain Tess Collins
Sara Edminsten Stephen Gusman Steven Haynes
Nadia Khalaf Robert LaBuda Megan Levine
Alejandro Pimentel Marie Sidenstricker Matthew Steele, CHT
Julian Tolossa Dan Toman Marlo White
EXECUTIVE TRACK
Aaron Andres Colby Baird Domenic Bartolini
Phil Berg John Clifford Lindsay DiSalvo
Kathryn Harris Erin Flynn-Renner Shanlee Kasson
Kevin McCarthy Lisa McDonald Allison Michel
Cassie Miller Sylvie Mitchell Matthew Rowe
Myisha Smith Dina Taher
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