August 25, 2026

Baldrige Foundation Appoints Tom Raffio to the President’s Council for Performance Excellence

byBaldrige Foundation

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.

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Baldrige Excellence Framework

Overview: Baldrige Framework National Technical Committee

The Baldrige Framework National Technical Committee is a formally convened body of recognized experts, recipients, examiners, and sector representatives charged with maintaining the technical integrity, precision, and consistency of the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a globally recognized standard of excellence.

Operating under the authority of the Baldrige Foundation Board of Directors, and with the approval of the U.S. Department of Commerce, this Advisory Committee, guided by its Chair, ensures that the Framework continues to reflect the highest standards of systems thinking, organizational assessment, and performance excellence, which will allow organizations and communities to improve their performance, achieve results, and sustain excellence.

The Committee’s purpose is to:

Preserve and validate the technical accuracy of the Framework’s concepts, criteria, and structure.
Advise the Foundation on proposed revisions, updates, cross-sector adaptations, and the development of additional tools and resources.
Ensure consistency across versions and sectors, maintaining the Framework’s unity, integration, and interpretive reliability.
Provide expert recommendations regarding emerging practices, data requirements, and alignment with related industry-recognized standards.
Safeguard the integrity of the Baldrige model as a trusted national and global standard.
Partner with others in the Baldrige ecosystem to coordinate a relationship between the Baldrige Excellence Framework and the Baldrige Award Criteria that is based on consistency, logic, and harmony to benefit user groups such as Applicants.

Membership in the Committee represents a professional distinction and reflects deep expertise in applying, teaching, or advancing the Baldrige Excellence Framework. Members serve as the technical stewards of the nation’s standard for organizational excellence. The term of a committee member is one (1) year and is renewable by invitation only.

Baldrige Framework National Technical Committee Listing

Data Table
Role	Name	Title	Company
Chair	Denise Shields	Board Chair	California Council for Excellence
Officer / Ex-Officio	Josh Racette	President & CEO	Baldrige Foundation
Member	Dawn Bailey	Program Manager / Senior Technical Writer and Editor	Baldrige Executive Fellows Program / Forensic Building Science, Inc.
Member	Margot Hoffman	President & CEO / Board Chair	The Partnership for Excellence / Alliance for Performance Excellence
Member	Jan Johnson	President & CEO	Jordan Johnson, Inc.
Member	Cindy Milrany	Chief Strategy Officer/Chief Administrative Officer	Freese & Nichols
Member	Urvi Patel	Senior Director - Quality and Programs	American Health Care Association
Member	JoAnn Sternke	Founder	Leader Excellence
Committee Advisor	Bob Fangmeyer	Program Director	Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
Committee Advisor	Harry Hertz	Director Emeritus - retired	Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
Committee Advisor	Brian Lassiter	President & CEO	Alliance for Performance Excellence

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