The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has named Rena Pomaville, owner of Tsunagari Services in Brighton, to the board of examiners for the 2020 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.
Rena Pomaville has a doctorate in Chemistry from Wayne State University and owns Tsunagari Services, Inc. which is located in Brighton, Michigan. Dr. Pomaville supports businesses in performance improvement initiatives that lead to increased efficiencies, customer satisfaction, employee morale and profitability. She is a Lean Six Sigma greenbelt and a laboratory assessor for the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation.
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, 129 awards have been presented to 121 organizations (including eight two-time award recipients). The 2019 winners are Adventist Health White Memorial, Los Angeles, CA (health care); Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), Pittsburgh, PA (nonprofit); City of Germantown, Germantown, TN (nonprofit); Howard Community College, Columbia, MD (education); Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Oak Brook, IL (nonprofit); and Mary Greeley Medical Center, Ames, IA (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, Baldrige Excellence Builder, nationally ranked leadership training, 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 baldrige@nist.gov, or visit http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.
