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| Pictured left to right: John Shishoff, Vice President of Administration and Finance; Jim Thompson, Trustee and Chairman of the Board; Patti Ross, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs; Mona Walters, Dean of Intuitional Planning and Effectiveness; Linda Peltier, Vice President for Strategic Human Resources; Steve Whiteman, Associate Professor of Computer Application Technology; Cris Valdez, President. |
The 2013 Partnership for Excellence award recipients were honored at TPE’s Annual Quest for Success Conference held September 16-17, 2013 at the Polaris Hilton in Columbus, Ohio. All eleven high-performing organizations were presented with their achievement award at a banquet on Monday evening, September 16, 2013.
“It truly was a humbling experience to be among the esteemed and excellent organizations honored by The Partnership for Excellence,” said Edison President, Dr. Cris Valdez. “To be recognized with the Silver Award not only helps us to see our accomplishments but inspires us to continually strive for improvement.”
During this year’s conference, three of the four 2012 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients - MESA Products Inc., North Mississippi Health Services, and the City of Irving, Texas presented information on their performance excellence journeys. TPE’s award recipients also shared their best practices in breakout presentations and informal discussions with conference attendees.
The Baldrige Awards are presented in four levels of achievement: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. The bronze level represents the pledge to excellence, the silver level represents commitment to excellence, the gold level represents achievement of excellence and the platinum level represents the Governor’s award for excellence. Of the four levels awarded, Edison was a recipient of the silver level award, demonstrating its commitment to excellence. Mona Walters serves on the Board of Examiners for The Partnership for Excellence. The experience gained examining other applicant’s submissions for the award is beneficial and serves Edison by informing its own application.
“We have been on a quality journey since 2000 when we adopted the AQIP Pathway for accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission,” said Mona Walters, Dean of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness. “AQIP, the Academic Quality Improvement Program is Baldrige-based and focuses the college on continuous improvement. Applying for the state Baldrige award validates our efforts and offers a perspective on our quality journey that serves to improve and strengthen the college.”
The Partnership for Excellence (TPE) is Ohio, Indiana & West Virginia’s Baldrige-based awards program. TPE assists organizations using the internationally-recognized Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. TPE’s primary product is a comprehensive assessment that helps organizational leaders better understand and prioritize key strengths and opportunities for improvement. While the assessment is the foundation, TPE’s main focus is on organizational learning, resource optimization and continuous improvement.
Applicants were evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners in seven areas defined by the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results. The evaluation process for each of the recipients included more than 1,000 hours of review and a three-day visit by a team of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications.
The mission of TPE is “to cultivate performance excellence and continuous improvement among business, education, government, healthcare and non-profit organizations based in Ohio, Indiana & West Virginia.” By providing a framework for performance excellence through the Baldrige Criteria, organizations have a greater focus on customers, process management, work systems and organization-wide results. These organizations typically see lower costs, improved productivity and increases in both employee and customer satisfaction. The results are higher quality education, improved healthcare for citizens in need, job creation to build a stronger economy and more efficient and effective government, with enormous impact on the lives of thousands.
Additional information is available on the TPE website at: www.thepartnershipforexcellence.org