Jeff Chilton, raised in Pacific Northwest, studied Ethno-mycology at the University of Washington in the late sixties. In 1973 he started work on a commercial mushroom farm in Olympia, Washington. During the next 10 years he became the production manager, responsible for the cultivation of over 2 million pounds of Agaricus mushrooms per year. He was also involved in the research and development of shiitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms which resulted in the earliest US fresh shiitake sales in 1978.

In 1983, Jeff co-authored the highly acclaimed book, The Mushroom Cultivator, and in 1989 he started Nammex, introducing medicinal mushrooms to the US nutritional supplement industry. Nammex extracts are certified organic and known for their high quality based on scientific analysis of the active compounds.

Jeff has traveled extensively in China, the birthplace of mushroom cultivation, attending conferences and visiting research facilities and mushroom farms. In 1997 he organized the first organic certification workshop for mushroom production in China. Jeff is a founding member of the World Society for Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products in 1994, a Member of the International Society for Mushroom Science, and a Council Member of the International Society for Medicinal Mushrooms.