Southcentral Foundation CEO applauded for inspirational leadership and performance excellence

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, April 17, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Southcentral Foundation President/CEO Dr. Katherine Gottlieb accepted the 2015 Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award this week, during the 27^th Annual Quest for Excellence® Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. P. George Benson, chair of the Baldrige Foundation, shared that Gottlieb was chosen for "her visionary leadership and commitment to customer-driven quality improvement in health care."

The Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award was established in 2013 as an annual award to recognize an outstanding leader who serves as a role model for performance excellence and inspirational leadership. In its inaugural year, its namesake, Dr. Harry Hertz, received the award for his legacy of leadership (1995-2013 as director, 2013- as director emeritus) of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Last year, the award was presented to Sister Mary Jean Ryan, the longtime president/CEO of the nation's first health care organization to be recognized with a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. 

"The Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award embodies the very best qualities of servant leadership," said Al Faber, president and CEO of the Baldrige Foundation. "While no one person in an organization can be credited with the achievement of excellence, this award recognizes and sets forth role-model behaviors that inspire, encourage, challenge and empower others to lead performance excellence."

A committee of nine judges selected Gottlieb as the 2015 award recipient from a field of 18 highly qualified nominees. The nominees came from all sectors, including six in the service category, three in manufacturing, four in health care, three in higher education, and one each in the non-profit and government categories.

"I could not have imagined a more worthy candidate for this award than Katherine Gottlieb," said Dr. Russell S. Phillips, director of Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. He co-nominated Gottlieb for the award. "She provides a story that inspires the world, and demonstrates the capacity of people and organizations to achieve great things through a laser focus on meeting the needs of customer-owners, principled leadership and supporting those who are at the front lines of change."

In 2011, Southcentral Foundation became Alaska's first health care organization, and 15th health care organization in the nation, to receive a Baldrige award. The Baldrige award is the only quality award that carries the Presidential seal and is known as the most prestigious quality award in the world. Gottlieb began implementing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence concepts at Southcentral Foundation in 2004.

"Baldrige is a tool that influences without controlling systematic change and allows a community, an individual, an organization, or a group of employees to remain free to be innovative. It encourages an organization to include culture while improving excellence, quality and outcomes," says Gottlieb.

About Southcentral Foundation
Southcentral Foundation (SCF) is an Alaska Native health care organization established under the tribal authority of Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI) in 1982 to improve the health and social conditions of Alaska Native people. SCF has grown from a single dental clinic to an internationally recognized, award-winning health care organization employing more than 1,800 people and managing more than 80 health care programs and services to serve 65,000 Alaska Native and American Indian people in Anchorage, Mat-Su Borough and 55 rural villages in the Anchorage Service Unit. Additionally, since 1999, SCF has jointly owned and managed the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. SCF's Nuka System of Care has earned the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and other national and international recognitions for performance excellence and innovation. To learn more, visit www.southcentralfoundation.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Allison Knox, [email protected]
Cell (907) 250-1480, Direct (907) 729-6317
Jeanette Anderson Moores, [email protected]
Cell (907) 229-6925, Direct (907) 729-5206

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150416/199236

SOURCE Southcentral Foundation

Related Links

http://www.southcentralfoundation.com/