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Blogrige

The Official Baldrige Blog

Judging America's Next Role Models: the People on the 2017 Baldrige Award Panel

By: Christine Schaefer

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People at table judging America's next role model organizations in manufacturing, service, small business, nonprofit, government, education, and health care.
Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

Finalists for the 2017 Baldrige Award—that is, those 14 U.S. organizations that received site visits this fall as part of the rigorous evaluation process—have been the focus of several day-long discussions this week among 11 judges. They are members of the 2017 judging panel for the prestigious annual award. (Their group is officially called the Judges Panel of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award).

Meanwhile, applicant organizations’ leaders and many others are eager to find out who will be named as 2017 Baldrige Award winners; that news will be made public this month in an announcement by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. For businesses, health care organizations, nonprofits, and education organizations striving for excellence, this is an exciting time!

So who are the people judging organizations for the nation’s highest award for performance excellence? Their photos and professional titles are listed on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s website. In addition, nine of the 2017 panel members participated in interviews for Blogrige in recent years. Since this Baldrige blog migrated to a new site last week, I am listing all those interviews below for readers’ convenience: 

The following interviews share the perspectives of three of the four newest judges, whose three-year appointments to the panel started earlier this year: 


Next, these interviews profile two of the four current judges who joined the panel in 2016 for three-year terms:


And ​​​​these four interviews focus on the four current judges who started their three-year terms in 2015:


Finally, these blogs describe share accomplishments or insights of four of the judges on the 2017 panel:

 

 

Award Process, Events, and Training

About the author

Picture of Christine Schaefer

Christine Schaefer

Christine Schaefer is a longtime staff member of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (BPEP). Her work has focused on producing BPEP publications and communications. She also has been highly involved in the Baldrige Award process, Baldrige examiner training, and other offerings of the program.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar and a double major, receiving highest distinction for her thesis in the interdisciplinary Political & Social Thought Program. She also has a master's degree from Georgetown University, where her studies and thesis focused on social and public policy issues. 

When not working, she sits in traffic in one of the most congested regions of the country, receives consolation from her rescued beagles, writes poetry, practices hot yoga, and tries to cultivate a foundation for three kids to direct their own lifelong learning (and to PLEASE STOP YELLING at each other—after all, we'll never end wars if we can't even make peace at home!).

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