PLEXSYS’ James Frey named to Board of Examiners

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standardsand Technology (NIST) has named James J. Frey, Ph.D., PLEXSYS InterfaceProducts Inc in Camas, Washington, to the Board of Examiners for the 2019Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award is the nation’shighest honor for organizational innovation and performance excellence.

Appointed by the NIST director, examiners are responsiblefor reviewing and evaluating applications submitted for the Baldrige Award, aswell as other assessment-related tasks. The examiner board is composed of morethan 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 qualificationand peer recognition, demonstrating competencies related to customer focus,communication, ethics, action orientation, team building, and analyticalskills. All members of the board must take part in a nationally rankedleadership development course based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework andthe scoring/evaluation processes for the Baldrige Award. They must alsocomplete an independent review of a Baldrige Award application or othercomparable examiner task.

Dr. Frey enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17 whilestill in high school. Later he went into the U.S. Navy where he served fouryears as an enlisted aviation electrician (for F-14s) making multipledeployments on several aircraft carriers. At the end of this enlistment he wentto college and upon graduation worked for the Japanese Embassy teaching Englishat a rural high school in Miyakonojo, Japan. Granted an age waiver, here-entered the Navy from Japan, attended Officer Candidate School in Pensacola,Florida, then went through Fixed- and Rotary-Wing Flight School in WhitingField (next to Pensacola), followed by MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter training inSan Diego, California. Dr. Frey served as a Naval Helicopter Pilot for 12years. He has earned two master's degrees (Philosophy and Psychology) and aPh.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Dr. Frey is the recipient ofover 37 personal and unit awards/citations from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, Navy,Coast Guard, and Marine Corps, including the Bronze Star. Dr. Frey lives inFlorida and works in the military training industry.

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, 124 awards have been presented to 115 organizations (including eight repeat recipients). The 2018 winners are Integrated Project Management Company Inc., Burr Ridge, Illinois (small business); Donor Alliance, Denver, Colorado (nonprofit); Alamo Colleges District, San Antonio, Texas (education); Tri County Tech, Bartlesville, Oklahoma (education); and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, Indiana (health care).

NIST manages the Baldrige Award in close conjunction withthe private sector.

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program also offers the2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Proven Leadership and ManagementPractices for High Performance, which includes Criteria for PerformanceExcellence; Baldrige Excellence Builder; Baldrige Cybersecurity ExcellenceBuilder; leadership training; and the Baldrige Collaborative Assessment andother assessment tools.