Seth A. Wheeler Named to Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners for 2019

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C., July 15, 2019 (Newswire.com) - The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has named Seth A. Wheeler, chief operating officer at the Army’s Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne) in North Carolina, to the Board of Examiners for the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award is the nation’s highest honor for organizational innovation and performance excellence. 

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 325 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 Excellence Framework 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. 

Wheeler serves as the chief operating officer for the Army’s only Special Operations Training Brigade of 1,500 military and civilian personnel and supervises the daily operations that forge the world’s most educated and trained soldiers and civilians on initial and advanced Special Operations Forces skills, including Army Special Forces, Civil Affairs, Psychological Operations, SEALs, Air Force Special Operations, Marine Special Operations, Allied Countries and the Interagency. 

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, 124 awards have been presented to 115 organizations (including eight repeat recipients). The 2018 winners are Integrated Project Management Company Inc., Burr Ridge, Illinois (small business); Donor Alliance, Denver, Colorado (nonprofit); Alamo Colleges District, San Antonio, Texas (education); Tri County Tech, Bartlesville, Oklahoma (education); and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, Indiana (health care).

NIST manages the Baldrige Award in close conjunction with the private sector.

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program also offers the 2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Proven Leadership and Management Practices for High 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 [email protected] or visit http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.

Media with questions, needing background or wishing to arrange interviews with Baldrige Program officials should contact Alison Gillespie, NIST Public Affairs Office, at (301) 975-2316 or [email protected].

Source: NIST Public Affairs Office