2025 Cohort of Baldrige Executive Fellows Announced

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program is pleased to announce the names of 17 executives  who are beginning a year-long leadership development journey in the prestigious Baldrige Executive Fellows Program. The competitively selected fellows will gain one-on-one access to Baldrige Award recipients—nationally recognized, role-model organizations across all sectors of the U.S. economy.

Fellows to Learn from World-Class Organizations

Through planned visits to Baldrige Award recipient sites across the United States, as well as networking with other executives, the new Baldrige Fellows will study how world-class U.S. organizations and their senior leaders achieve strategic and operational excellence and stimulate innovation. Within a collegial environment, they will have a unique opportunity to compare the perspectives of executives across sectors, share candid advice on leadership challenges, and use the insights they gain to address a strategic challenge or opportunity within their own organizations as part of individual capstone projects.

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“The Baldrige Executive Fellows Program is the only executive leadership fellowship that provides one-on-one access to Baldrige Award recipients and the opportunity to learn role-model management strategies from these high-performing executives. . . . Now is a perfect time for executives with vision and foresight to understand and apply the Baldrige concepts as a means to improving their organization and its sustainability.” —17^th Director and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Laurie E. Locascio, National Institute of Standards and Technology

“It is our belief that your participation in this program will benefit you personally, your organization, and your organization’s key stakeholders—employees, customers, patients, students, partners, suppliers, and the larger community.” —39^th U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross

“I am committed to encouraging and enabling organizational success in every dimension of performance. I believe that the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program empowers executives to lead their organizations at new levels of excellence.” —38^th U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Sue Pritzker

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Since its inception in 2010, the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program has graduated more than 168 executives. Graduates’ capstone projects have documented the wide-ranging improvements they’ve designed, including overhauling strategic planning processes, innovating supplier networks, creating high-reliability health care organizations, lessening patients’ reliance on opioids after surgery, improving employee engagement, engaging physicians, overhauling communication processes for dispersed workforces, standardizing work processes, better preparing students for professional careers, and reimagining population health and community health outcomes.

Fellows have come from all sectors of the U.S. economy and have visited and personally met with hundreds of Baldrige Award recipient senior leaders, visiting facilities, factories, hospital floors, hotels, restaurants, parks, and airports, among other sites, to build understanding of role-model strategies to lead a high-performing organization.

Learn more about the Baldrige Fellows and how to apply for the next cohort.

In conjunction with NIST and the private sector, the Baldrige Program manages the Baldrige Award, which was established by Congress in 1987. The Baldrige Program promotes resilience, innovation, and excellence in organizational performance; recognizes the achievements and results of U.S. organizations; and publicizes successful performance strategies. The Baldrige Program also offers the Baldrige Excellence Framework: Proven leadership and management practices for high performance.