Yesterday, March 31, 2026, I was honored to be recognized as one of the 2026 Baldrige Foundation Leadership Award recipients. I am deeply grateful for this recognition and humbled to be included among leaders whose work reflects the values and principles of the Baldrige Framework.

For more than 30 years, the Baldrige Framework has shaped my professional journey and influenced my views on what truly drives organizational excellence. Serving as both a state and national Baldrige reviewer gave me a firsthand understanding of how high-performing organizations think, lead, and execute.

Over the years, I have been deeply committed to learning the Baldrige Criteria not simply as an assessment tool, but as a disciplined system for professional growth and organizational learning. Through the study of past Baldrige Award recipients, I have seen how sustained success comes from aligning strategy, customers, workforce, data, and results.

I have also had the privilege of helping leaders, organizations, and communities apply these principles in practical ways. Time and again, the results have been meaningful: clearer strategy, stronger engagement, improved performance, and measurable outcomes.

Using this experience, I have had the honor of helping more than 60 clients be recognized as role-model organizations across government, public safety, healthcare, education, nonprofit, and business sectors.

Most recently, I had the privilege of guiding the City of Coral Gables, Florida, to become the nation’s first community to receive Gold-level recognition and the first community eligible to apply for the 2026 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s only presidential recognition for performance excellence.

Being recognized in the Community sector as President of Baldrige Group, LLC is a tremendous honor. It is also a meaningful reminder that no worthwhile work is ever accomplished alone. I have been fortunate to learn from outstanding mentors, colleagues, clients, and community leaders whose commitment to excellence, service, and continuous improvement has shaped both my work and my perspective.

I would especially like to thank three individuals who played an important role in making this possible.

  • First, Joseph L. Ryan, MD, an outstanding EMS leader and champion of performance excellence. More than 30 years ago, when he was unable to accept an invitation to become a reviewer for the Florida Sterling Council because of schedule conflicts, he encouraged me to apply.
  • Second, Javier Hernandez-Lichtl, retired healthcare executive at Baptist Health South Florida, who believed in my approach and welcomed me as a partner for more than 20 years as we worked together to improve quality across the hospitals he led as CEO.
  • Third, Stephanie Norling, President and CEO of Communities of Resilience and Excellence (C.O.R.E.), formerly Communities of Excellence, who nominated me for this award and with whom I have had the pleasure of working as a mentor, trainer, and reviewer in this outstanding Baldrige-based program.

Finally, I am sincerely grateful to the Baldrige Foundation for this honor, and thankful for the many leaders and organizations I have had the privilege to serve over the past 30-plus years. This recognition is a reminder that excellence matters, leadership matters, and the work of helping organizations and communities improve is worth every effort.