WASHINGTON, D.C. The Baldrige Foundation announced today that Tom Raffio, President and CEO of Northeast Delta Dental, has accepted an appointment to the President’s Council for Performance Excellence.
The Council brings together leaders from business, government, and civic institutions to help strengthen organizational performance, economic competitiveness, and community well-being. Members serve as strategic advisors to the Baldrige Foundation as it expands the practical use of the Baldrige Excellence Framework®. Additionally, council members are engaged in supporting the expansion and adoption of Baldrige and the tools of the Institute for Performance Excellence to help support businesses across the United States and throughout the world.
“Tom brings deep leadership experience and a demonstrated commitment to performance excellence,” said Josh Racette, President and CEO of the Baldrige Foundation. “Under his leadership, Northeast Delta Dental translated Baldrige principles into sustained results for its customers, workforce, and communities. His firsthand experience leading a national Baldrige Award recipient will bring important insight to the Council and help us expand the reach and impact of the Framework.”
Raffio has served as President and CEO of Northeast Delta Dental since 1995. During his tenure, the nonprofit dental benefits organization grew from serving approximately 300,000 people to more than one million across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
In 2024, Northeast Delta Dental received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the nonprofit category, becoming the first organization from New Hampshire to receive the honor. Raffio also received a 2020 Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership Excellence in Health Care.
“Baldrige has shaped how we lead, plan, support our workforce, serve our customers, and measure results at Northeast Delta Dental,” Raffio said. “We have seen how a disciplined commitment to performance excellence can strengthen an organization and the communities it serves. I am honored to join the President’s Council and help more organizations benefit from the Baldrige Framework and the ongoing work of the Institute for Performance Excellence.”
The Institute for Performance Excellence, the flagship program of the Baldrige Foundation, recently announced the creation of the National Assessment Center, which serves as the digital arena where organizations can self-assess using the Baldrige Excellence Framework® and gain access to 350 other assessment opportunities. The National Assessment Center powers smart assessments across all sectors of the economy, helping to transform results into organizational intelligence to uncover gaps, guide growth, and scale impact efficiently. The primary goal is to help strengthen competitiveness.
About the Baldrige Foundation and National Assessment Center
The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award strengthens competitiveness and community well-being through performance excellence. Through its Institute for Performance Excellence, it provides organizations with education, tools, professional development, networking, and improvement systems, including the National Assessment Center, a platform for customizable self-assessments and organizational intelligence. As a nonprofit partner to the National Institute of Standards and Technology within the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Foundation supports revisions to and ongoing development of the Baldrige Excellence Framework® and produces the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards Ceremony and the Quest for Excellence® Conference.
