The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology has named Kelvin L, Parks, medical center director, at Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, Ar. to the Board of Examiners for the 2019 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The Baldrige Award is the nation’s highest honor for organizational innovation and performance excellence. Mr. Parks is from Chattanooga.
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 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 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 Excellence Framework 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.
Mr. Parks was appointed medical center director of Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks on Nov. 25, 2018 and is responsible for the control and operation of this complexity level 1C healthcare system comprised of 1,600 employees, seven Community Based Outpatient Clinics, and 55,000 veterans in three states. Prior to this assignment, he served as VHSO associate director, where he oversaw the operations of the facility to include: $327 million operating budget, Engineering, Safety, Logistics, Employee Education, Nutrition and Food Service, Prosthetics, Business Operations, Finance, and Privacy. He previously served as the associate medical center director at the Manchester, New Hampshire VA Medical Center. His VA career began in November 2006 as an Education Compliance specialist with the Veterans Benefits Administration. He then joined the VHA as a VA/DoD HR coordinator at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in January 2008, where he was instrumental in the establishment of this country’s first fully integrated federal health care system between the DoD and Veterans Affairs. Mr. Parks was appointed as Supervisory Health Systems specialist to the Lovell director in November 2010 and his career demonstrated continuous advancement through leadership positions, which include appointments as acting assistant director at Lovell FHCC and acting assistant director at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center.
Mr. Parks is a 1986 alumni of Brained High School and a native of Chattanooga and is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Yeoman (Aviation Warfare). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management from Crichton College and a Masters in Management and Leadership from Webster University.
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, IL (small business); Donor Alliance, Denver, CO (nonprofit); Alamo Colleges District, San Antonio, TX (education); Tri County Tech, Bartlesville, OK (education); and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Jasper, IN (health care).
NIST manages the Baldrige Award in close conjunction with the private sector.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program also offers the 2019–2020 Baldrige Excellence Framework: Proven Leadership and Management Practices for High Performance, which includes the world-emulated Criteria for Performance Excellence; Baldrige Excellence Builder; Baldrige Cybersecurity Excellence Builder; nationally ranked leadership training; and the Baldrige Collaborative Assessment and other assessment tools. For information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and the Baldrige Award application process, call (301) 975-2036, send an e-mail to baldrige@nist.gov, or visit http://www.nist.gov/baldrige.