Kathy Goerdt honored with national award
The commerce department's National Institute of Standards and Technology has named Kathy Goerdt, performance excellence manager at Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund in Oak Brook to the board of examiners for the 2018 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 300 experts competitively selected from industry, professional, trade, education, health care and nonprofit (including government) organizations from across the U.S.
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 Framework for Performance Excellence 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.
Goerdt is the Performance Excellence Manager at the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund where she advocates for continuous process improvement, facilitates best practices and delivers creative solutions to operational challenges. She has worked at IMRF for 20 years, serving in various operational and technology roles before becoming the Performance Excellence Manager. Kathy earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from Saint Leo University. As a Six Sigma Black Belt and LEAN Management professional, Kathy uses her performance excellence expertise to facilitate process improvement efforts that are aligned with proven tools and strategies.
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, 119 awards have been presented to 110 organizations.