Appointed by the NIST Director, examiners are responsible for reviewing and evaluating applications submitted for the Baldrige Award, as well as other assessment-related tasks. The examiner board is composed of more than 300 leading experts competitively selected from industry, professional, trade, education, health care, and nonprofit (including government) organizations from across the United States.
Those selected meet the highest standards of qualification and peer recognition, demonstrating competencies related to customer focus, communication, ethics, action orientation, team building, and analytical skills. All members of the board must take part in a nationally ranked leadership development course based on the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence and the scoring/evaluation processes for the Baldrige Award. They must also complete an independent review of a Baldrige Award application or other comparable examiner task.
Mr. Cummins is a professional engineer with 30 years of program, project, and construction management experience. He was appointed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to serve the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program as an evaluator of high-performance practices of organizations in the education, healthcare, and military contracting sectors of the economy. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cummins was nominated by Ford Motor Company and the Engineering Society of Detroit to a U.S. Congressional Fellowship with the Office of Senator Carl Levin.
Named after Malcolm Baldrige, the 26th Secretary of Commerce, the Baldrige Award was established by Congress in 1987. Awards may be given annually to organizations in each of six categories: manufacturing, service, small business, education, health care, and nonprofit. The Award promotes innovation and excellence in organizational performance, recognizes the achievements and results of U.S. organizations, and publicizes successful performance strategies. Since the first group was recognized in 1988, 119 awards have been presented to 110 organizations (including eight repeat recipients). The 2017 winners are Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, Bristol, TN (small business); Stellar Solutions, Palo Alto, CA (small business); City of Fort Collins, Fort Collins, CO (nonprofit); Adventist Health Castle, Kailua, HI (health care); and Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, AK (health care; Southcentral Foundation is the first, two-time, health care recipient of the Baldrige Award).
NIST manages the Baldrige Award in close conjunction with the private sector.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program also offers the 2017–2018 Baldrige Excellence Framework: A Systems Approach to Improving Your Organization’s Performance, which includes the world-emulated Criteria for Performance Excellence; Baldrige Excellence Builder; Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder; nationally ranked leadership training; and the Baldrige Collaborative Assessment and other assessment tools. For information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and the Baldrige Award application process, call (301) 975-2036, send an e-mail to baldrige@nist.gov, or visit http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.
Media with questions, needing background, or wishing to arrange interviews with Baldrige Program officials should contact Gail Porter, NIST Public Affairs Office, at (301) 975-3392 or gail.porter@nist.gov.
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