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Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

Baldrige Executive Fellows Program

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Baldrige Executive Fellow pointing to Leadership Development


Director Message  |  Key Dates  |  How To Apply  |  Selection Process  |  Current Cohort  |  Alumni Listing  |  Capstone Interviews  |  Printable PDF Version  |  #BaldrigeFellow

Hands-On Leadership Development

Join a Community of Visionary Leaders

The Baldrige Executive Fellows Program® is a one-year, nationally ranked leadership development experience for direct reports to the most senior leader in the organization or business unit leaders. The program prepares this elite group of rising senior executives for impactful leadership and helps them emerge with a broader perspective on how to achieve performance excellence for their own organizations, stimulate innovation, and build the knowledge and capabilities necessary for organizational sustainability. Featured in Leadership Excellence, "Peer Learning" (PDF) explains how Fellows learn and share leadership solutions with national role models and other executives.

Senior Executive Development

As a Baldrige Fellow, you’ll be part of a cohort of senior decision makers who learn from each other and from winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest award for organizational performance excellence. From personal visits to these role-model organizations and their senior executives and from interactions with your cohort, you’ll establish relationships that will benefit you and your organization now and in the future.

PROGRAM BENEFITS

  • In-depth learning from world-class organizations and their senior executives
  • A peer network of fellow executives to tap into now and in the future
  • Best practices and solutions to drive improvement in your organization’s results
  • A capstone project to address a unique strategic challenge or opportunity facing your organization
  • A deeper understanding of strategy; sustainability; integration of processes, plans, resources, and goals; and measuring the right things

Why Support a Baldrige Fellow?

Why Support A Baldrige Fellow?
Why Support A Baldrige Fellow?
Dr. John Jasinski, president, Northwest Missouri State University, and Baldrige overseer, talks about the Baldrige Fellows program distinct benefits and why he, as an employer, has supported Baldrige Fellows.

What Executive Fellows Are Saying

walk the talk

Jo Ann Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer, AARP Inc.
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I was able to establish invaluable connections and garner insights into how other leading organizations are developing and implementing innovative, effective strategies in support of operational excellence and leadership development. A significant insight is that the leadership and senior management must  model its organization's mission consistently, with passion and enthusiasm. They must truly "walk the talk"—particularly during times of change.

 

Jo Ann Jenkins CEO, AARP photo



Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP: Service Quality, The Baldrige Framework, & Change 
The CEO Show, ASQ™ TV
Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO at AARP, discusses innovative service quality, the process of change, and the importance of a quality framework.

best thing I’ve ever done professionally

William Daniel, Vice President for Health System Affairs, Chief Quality Officer,
UT Southwestern Medical Center
________________________________

The best thing I’ve ever done professionally was to be a part of the Baldrige Executive Fellowship.
 

life changing

Dr. Brian E. Condit, Mountain State Health Alliance
________________________________

 The program was life changing for me. The opportunity to work with an exceptional group of fellows, the faculty and the Baldrige program itself was all I hoped for and more.
 

Resources

2025 Baldrige Executive Fellows Information Packet Word
Journey to Excellence PDF, originally published in ASQ’s Quality Progress
A Crowning Achievement for Your Own Organization
Peer Learning, the Baldrige Fellows Program, by Harry Hertz, from Leadership Excellence July 2012 PDF
Benefits for Participants PDF
Performance excellence, Baldrige Framework and Criteria, Best practices and Leadership development

Contacts

  • Baldrige Customer Service
    (301) 975-2036
    NIST/BPEP
    100 Bureau Drive, M/S 1020
    Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1020
Created September 3, 2013, Updated October 16, 2024