CAHME/Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership Excellence

Application Deadline: November 16, 2026

Foundation Awards Program

About the Award

The Baldrige Foundation promotes leadership excellence by encouraging strategies that align mission, vision, and values to drive innovation and achieve sustainable results. It supports leaders through educational programs, resources, and recognition initiatives, empowering them to foster a culture of continuous improvement and resilience, ensuring their organizations can adapt and thrive in a competitive environment.

The CAHME/Baldrige Foundation Award for Leadership Excellence recognizes a program director who has made significant strides in improving the quality of their program and advancing the quality of healthcare management education.

This award recognizes a program director’s leadership in advancing program quality through a significant continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiative.

Award Recognition & Benefits

Awardee receives a Baldrige Medallion and certificate recognizing their achievement.
Present their Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiative using the CAHME Process Improvement Cycle (PIC) tool during CAHME Bootcamp (June 2027).
The Program Director and their College will receive one complimentary Silver organizational membership to the Institute for Performance Excellence, providing all employees with access to more than 370 online training and certification courses. Partial scholarships will be available for eligible courses.
The Program Director and their College will receive access to the National Assessment Center.
Recognition on CAHME’s website and social media

Eligibility

Serves as the program director of the CAHME accredited program
Program holds current CAHME accreditation
Has served in the role for at least one (1) year prior to the application deadline (will need to provide the date in which you began as Program Director at your university)
Program director has successfully demonstrated that they led and implemented a CQI process with the CAHME PIC tool
Has played a substantial leadership role in the improvement initiative submitted.
Program is in good standing, meaning, not on probation and has no outstanding financial obligations to CAHME
Most recent site visit does not have any unresolved “not mets” or “critical concerns”

Ready to Nominate a Program Director

Learn more about How to Apply and Key Dates
Prepare the required submission information listed below.
When ready to nominate a leader, select the "APPLY NOW" button, located at the top.

Submission Requirements

The application consists of three components:

Process Improvement Cycle (PIC) Tool
Complete the online application using the PIC tool.
Narrative Essays (200 word limit per question)
Narrative essay responses must be submitted through the online application (survey). Do not repeat information already documented in the PIC Tool unless additional context is necessary to explain your leadership, decision-making, or the broader significance of the initiative. (See Narrative Essays section below for more details and essay questions.)
Limited Supporting Documentation
Should be included if it adds relevant information.

Narrative Essays

The narrative will be complementary, not duplicating the information contained in the PIC Tool. The narrative should explain the leadership, decision-making, organizational context, and broader significance of the initiative.

Instructions for Completing the Narrative Essays:

Answer each question in the online application.
Use concise, evidence-informed responses.
Refer to the PIC Tool where appropriate, but do not repeat data tables, measures, timelines, or action plans already documented there.
Max response length: 200 words per question

Essay Questions

Strategic Importance of the Initiative
Describe why this improvement initiative was selected and why it was strategically important to your program.
Your Leadership of the Initiative
Describe your personal leadership throughout the initiative.
What Made this Initiative Exceptional
Describe what distinguishes this initiative from routine continuous quality improvement activities.
Lasting Organizational Impact
Describe the broader organizational impact beyond the measurable outcomes reported in the PIC Tool.

Questions and Online Application Help
Brianna Moccia, CAHME Operations Manager | 301-298-1820 ext. 707

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