Welcome To
The Mid-State Group
Mid-State HR
Too often HR managers do not have the resources, personnel or time to tackle the ever-flowing avalanche of regulations, hiring and training demands, policy creation, and on and on… Let us help.
Mid-State Safety
Mid-State Safety provides fractional Safety leadership services for those businesses who don’t have the resources to hire a full time safety director, or for larger businesses who want to optimize their
team.
Mid-State Cyber
60% of small businesses who
experience a cyber breach will go
out of business within 6 months.
Mid-State Wellness
Did you know that productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers on average $225.8 billion annually, or $1,685 per employee per year?
Mid-State Finance
It’s a painful irony: many small to midsize businesses struggle to find and retain the top-tier financial leadership they need for growth, at fees that don’t overly strain the company’s budget.
Our Proprietary 5-step Process
Our Mid-State GPS process was designed based on tools and expertise every business, regardless of size must deploy to achieve continued growth and success: Safety (Physical, Security, Cyber) Human Resources, Wellness, Finance & Leadership.Each of these core competencies/specialities can be overwhelming and complex for any business on their own. Where does a business start? How do they know there is a real need in any of these key areas? This is why Mid-State GPS deploys a 5 step process to help our team work with your team to better understand the intricacies of your business: Identify, Create Strategies, Implement Strategies, Finance, Monitor & Adjust! It starts with a genuine desire to understand your business, its employees and its leadership and continues month to month year to year by monitoring and adjusting the long term corporate growth strategy we implemented together to ensure ongoing success.
Meet Our Team

John Basten
CEO
John Basten, CRA, CWCA, MWCA, CBWA, CIC, is President of The Mid-State Group. He also serves as Chief Growth Strategist for middle market growth oriented firms throughout Central Virginia. Basten is a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), the area’s only certified Master WorkComp Advisor, one of only 150 agents (and first in Virginia) in the United States to earn the Certified Risk Architect (CRA) designation. He also is an authorized 10/30 OSHA Outreach instructor, a certified Functional Movement Practitioner, a Certified Benefits and Wellness Advisor, and a Certified High Performing Culture Consultant.
As the area’s only Certified Risk Architect, Basten collaborates with clients to identify and mitigate risks that impede company growth and profitability. His specialty is integrating the core disciplines of safety, wellness, human resources, finance and leadership into comprehensive risk management strategies that decrease costs, increase profitability, and nurture thriving workplaces. With a B.S. in Total Quality Management from the University of Georgia, Basten has a driving passion for education. In addition to his education outreach through the Mid-State Academy of Risk Management, he is a work site trainer for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Basten has also lunched and managed 12 successful entrepreneurial businesses and 1 nonprofit and has worked in the risk management field for over 25 years.
Brittany Jenkins
Mid-State Wellness
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Rusty Goodwin
Leadership, (Governance & Compliance)
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If you’re looking for a combination of simplicity and powerful solutions, you’ve found it – or him.
Among our clients here at Mid-State, Rusty Goodwin has garnered a nickname: “The Fixer.” Our partners started calling him that as, one by one, he started introducing them to immediate “fixes” that streamlined their processes and increased their bottom line.
Now, he wants to take that same powerful solution-oriented mindset and put it to work for your company.
Rusty prides himself on making things easily understood and simple enough that busy leaders will feel they can actually devote the time and attention to carrying out those solutions – and then continuing them as a successful, ongoing habit. If you feel that your company needs help bringing order to chaos, making seemingly impossible changes, or helping to streamline systems, Rusty Goodwin is ready and equipped to help you find the answers.“Safety is a heart for others. If you let health and safety awareness permeate your life, then you have an opportunity for outreach to help fix the bad things in the world,” she says. Whether it’s teaching CPR, performing a workplace safety check, or educating children, Organ thrives on supporting the mission of Mid-State Safety by teaching people to stay as safe and healthy as possible.
“I get intrinsic joy from assisting people,” she explains. Organ’s “superpower” is creativity, applied to situational training scenarios, props, and perspectives that are always entertaining and thought provoking.
Jodi Organ
Mid-State Safety
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Superheroes don’t just save the world in comic book movies. Behind the scenes, Joni Organ joins the legions of true superheroes dedicated to saving lives every day in Central Virginia. The gregarious corporate trainer, Marine and former police officer is passionate about promoting health, safety, prevention and protection through Mid-State Safety.
“Safety is a heart for others. If you let health and safety awareness permeate your life, then you have an opportunity for outreach to help fix the bad things in the world,” she says. Whether it’s teaching CPR, performing a workplace safety check, or educating children, Organ thrives on supporting the mission of Mid-State Safety by teaching people to stay as safe and healthy as possible.
“I get intrinsic joy from assisting people,” she explains. Organ’s “superpower” is creativity, applied to situational training scenarios, props, and perspectives that are always entertaining and thought provoking.
Chris Judd
Director of Mid-State Cyber
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For the past 30 years, Chris has managed teams of IT professionals to protect companies ranging from 50-500 employees and organizations with up to 20,000 members from internal threats, external hacks, breaches, compromises and attacks. To date, Chris and his teams have amassed a 100% reliability record against such attacks. He has architected and implemented various “as a Service” systems such as IaaS (Infrastructure), PaaS (Platform), DaaS (Desktop), and NaaS (Network) for healthcare, banking and finance, and non-profit organizations of all sizes. He has also transitioned many enterprises to secure cloud spaces, reducing costs while enhancing security and
functionality.
As a white-hat hacker, Chris stays on top of the latest topics, trends, attacks, resolutions, and strategies to help clients stay safe from “cyber-evil” and to guard data and systems with state-of-the-art solutions. He holds multiple advanced certifications in systems, operations, and design from Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS), and Google.
Ronny Smith
Mid-State HR
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Ronny Michelle Smith is director of Mid-State HR. Smith and her expert team provide human resources consultation, services, support and training to growing businesses. Mid-State HR integrates with Mid-State Wellness and Mid-State Safety for comprehensive Total Work-Life 360TM risk management solutions.
Today’s HR manager juggles an overwhelming array of complex duties, from benefit plan design to compliance. New laws and regulations change almost daily. Mid-State HR is an ideal solution for busy HR professionals who need specialized workload balancing, training or
knowledge.
Smith is an approved trainer through the Human Resources Certification Institute and is affiliated with National Compliance Advisors and the Institute of WorkComp Professionals. She is former Corporate HR Director for TRAX International in Las Vegas, serving selected NASA, U.S. Army, and the USPS locations throughout the United States, China and India. She also was executive director for a global leader in power plant simulation and engineering solutions. Smith has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Human Relations from Liberty University. She has also completed masters degree courses in counseling at LU along with coursework with the Society of Human Resource Management.
Ron Decherico
School Resources
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About Our Team
As an entrepreneur, owner or executive, you have specific goals for your company/organization! What is the next level of growth (or success) you are trying to achieve? The Mid-State Group with our proprietary Mid-State GPS (Growth Positioning Strategies) is uniquely positioned to provide your organization with fortune 500 thought leadership to help you, your team and company grow. As a SMB, you are already overwhelmed by wearing a lot of hats, limited personnel, time and resources but your business needs expertise in HR, Safety, Cyber, Finance, wellness and Leadership to reach its true potential. Mid-State has hired top talent in each of these areas to ensure your business has access to the expertise and thought leadership it needs to succeed at a fraction of the cost (most of our clients pay nothing!)
Office hours
M-F: 8am – 5:00pm
address
2525 Rivermont Ave
Lynchburg, Va 24503
Phone
(434) 528-1001






