Executives Prepare to Tackle Strategic Leadership Challenges During Year-Long Fellowship

Embarking on a year-long fellowship to dialogue on all aspects of leadership and how it relates to a visionary focus, operational intelligence, engagement, and delivering results, fifteen executives from health care, manufacturing, nonprofit, and service organizations have begun their journeys as Baldrige Executive Fellows.

As Fellows, the executives will use the Baldrige Excellence Framework as their foundation in a study of how world-class organizations and their senior leaders achieve operational excellence and stimulate innovation. Within a safe and confidential environment, the Fellows will have a unique opportunity to compare the perspectives of executives across sectors, share honest advice on leadership challenges, and use the insights gained to address a strategic challenge or opportunity within their own organizations.

The Fellows will tour Baldrige Award recipients Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Premier, and the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, and they will engage leaders including Baldrige Award-winning CEOs, national leadership award winners, executives from all sectors of the U.S. economy, and other Baldrige Executive Fellows. They will participate in facility tours, behind-the-scenes tours, and interactive leadership roundtables.

Following is the 2015 cohort of Baldrige Executive Fellows:

• Andrea Benin, Senior Vice President, Quality and Patient Safety, Connecticut Children's Medical Center
• Helen Burstin, Chief Scientific Officer, The National Quality Forum
• Marcus Cano, Director of Program Execution, Sierra Providence Health Network, Tenet Healthcare Corporation
• Ruth Cardiello, Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management, Stamford Hospital
• Connie Clemmons-Brown, Regional Vice President, Patient Care Services, Dignity Health
• Jennifer Convery, Group President, North America, Griffith Laboratories
• Debra Johnson, Vice President of Public Affairs and the Inside the Economy® Museum,Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Jeffrey Kaser, Vice President, Area General Manager Midwest, Packaging Corporation of America
• Eric Moll, Chief Executive Officer, Mason General Hospital and Family of Clinics
• Theresa Reilly, Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer, Abington Memorial Hospital
• Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President, AARP Foundation
• Deborah Sanford, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Eastern Maine Medical Center
• Jeffrey D. Sedlack, Medical Director for Surgical Services, Providence Alaska Medical Center; Associate Medical Director, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare
• Eunmee Shim, Chief Operating Officer, Shady Grove Medical Center
• Erika Sockaci, Vice President, Health Services Administration, AltaMed Health Services Corporation

For the second year in a row, the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program was highlighted as part of a first place award for the Baldrige Program in the government and military category of the Leadership 500 Excellence Awards, an annual recognition of the world's best leadership development programs and initiatives.

For more information on the Baldrige Fellows and how to apply, go to http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/fellows/index.cfm.