Who we are

Lori Kirkland

Principal

Lori Kirkland began her career with IBM in 1979 in Rochester, Minn., and held numerous positions in finance, manufacturing, quality, industrial engineering, and information services. Lori was a member of the team that led IBM Rochester to the achievement of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1990. After 17 years with IBM, she left to care for her twin sons. Lori has served as an examiner, senior examiner or alumni for almost 20 years. She first started consulting with organizations using the Baldrige Criteria in 1992.

Since leaving IBM, Lori has worked with organizations interested in using the Baldrige model to improve their performance. Clients include many Baldrige recipients as well as organizations such as Mayo Clinic and M.D. Anderson, who strive for internal improvement without entering the award process.

As a senior examiner and alumni for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Lori has participated in numerous reviews and site visits. She was selected to work with the NIST laboratories to guide them in using the criteria for self assessment and improvement. Most recently, she has been serving in an advisory capacity to the National Quality Program. She regularly receives requests to work with national and international organizations and has spoken at many national and international conferences including the Quest for Excellence.

Today, Lori continues to work with organizations in healthcare, education, and business that are interested in using the Baldrige model for their internal quality improvement efforts.

Doug Sears

Senior Consultant

Doug is a passionate and inspirational leader, coaching senior executives to systematically transform their organizations. He is an engaging change agent with superior communication skills in affecting cultural change to achieve and sustain superior performance.

Doug recently retired as the Director, Performance Improvement/Knowledge Transfer for Bon Secours Health System after 22 years of service. Doug initiated, designed, and led Enhancing Performance Excellence (EPE) - integrating all performance improvement efforts across the System. This initiative achieved a $120 million impact on clinical quality, service delivery, productivity, supply chain, and revenue enhancement in three years. Doug designed, implemented, and led a comprehensive Lean Six Sigma/Knowledge Transfer performance improvement program throughout Bon Secours. This nationally recognized initiative certified 82 Black Belts and 800+ Green Belts with a $30+ million impact over five years. Doug was instrumental in integrating and institutionalizing Lean Six Sigma philosophy and concepts into key business processes and organizational culture.

Doug is a nineteenth year Senior Alumni Examiner for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. He has served as Lead Judge for the Virginia Senate Productivity and Quality Award, Judge for the U.S. Army Communities of Excellence Award, and a Judge for the Ohio Award for Excellence. Doug is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with GE Healthcare and the Juran Institute, Certified in Lean through the University of Michigan School of Engineering, and an Advanced Statistical Application Expert with the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers.

Doug serves as Adjunct Faculty for the American Society for Quality teaching the Healthcare Black Belt course. Doug was Adjunct Faculty of the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond for eleven years. Doug taught Strategic Process Improvement in the MBA program utilizing the Baldrige model and Lean Six Sigma as the framework for the course. The Robins School was ranked 29th in the BusinessWeek 2013 U.S. Business School rankings.

Karly Mucks

Consultant

Karly Mucks began her career as a licensed nursing home administrator in 2009 and has spent the last 6 years executing, supervising, and being accountable for the overall financial, program, and business operations for skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. In her current role, Karly is responsible for providing strategic leadership in continuous improvement projects and promoting engagement in performance improvement in a health care setting. She also plays a role in Joint Commission Accreditation, regulatory quality reporting activities and other LEAN and special project assignments.

At Kirkland-Jones, KarlyÕs role as consultant includes participating in assessments, mock site visits, data analysis and education. KarlyÕs strong background in healthcare quality assurance and broad experience in coordinating all levels of staff and administration in the quality improvement process is a critical element to Kirkland-Jones consulting.

KarlyÕs work as a national Malcolm Baldrige examiner has enabled her to pursue her passion for quality improvement and performance excellence. With her extensive knowledge in health care quality and regulations, Karly is able to assist organizations in applying the framework and criteria as part of their Performance Excellence journey.

Experience & Testimonials

Kirkland-Jones has been providing consulting services to organizations using the Baldrige criteria for over twenty years. Whether an organization is interested in learning to use the criteria concepts or applying for the award, our services are tailored to assess an organization's current state, identifying strengths to leverage and opportunities to improve. Our services have contributed to the success of many organizations in all sectors of the award process, with more healthcare award recipients than any other consulting firm. This is what our past clients had to say:

"Lori's guidance gave Mercy insight in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, from an outside perspective, from someone who had personally lead an organizational excellence journey and who has an examiner's perspective. Lori's help gave us a richer understanding of the criteria and was instrumental in our efforts to deploy excellence processes in all areas of our diverse organization, and aided us in strengthening our approaches to sustaining world class performance." - Javon R. Bea, President/CEO, Mercy Health System

"Lori provided us a clear and objective “set of eyes” that challenged us to reconcile what we said about ourselves versus what we could show evidence of. She was quickly able to establish her credibility in understanding the criteria even with some skeptical executives; most importantly, she made a real difference in our quality journey." - Sr. Mary Jean Ryan, former CEO of SSM Health Care

"Lori provided AtlantiCare with the support we needed to achieve our goal of being worthy of the Baldrige Award. Her friendly and focused style gained her the respect of our leadership team, staff and physicians. What emerged over time was a trusting relationship that enabled her to press our team to answer the hard questions about our processes and performance, craft new approaches and effectively deploy them across our system. As a result, our performance has improved for the benefit of those we serve and those who work and practice at AtlantiCare." - David Tilton, CEO of AtlantiCare

"Lori began advising Premier early in our journey and continued through our success at the state and national level. Her deep understanding of the criteria and her inherent business sense guided us on an improvement journey that created remarkable value for our hospital affiliates." - Rick Norling, former President & CEO of Premier Inc.

"Bronson had the opportunity to work with Lori Kirkland as we embarked on our journey to excellence using the Baldrige framework. Lori brings valuable expertise using the criteria, experience interacting with senior leaders across the nation, as well as practical advice that moved Bronson forward on our journey leading to Bronson Methodist Hospital being named a 2005 award recipient." - Frank J. Sardone, President & CEO of Bronson Healthcare Group

"Lori's work with RWJ-Hamilton facilitated growth as well as improvement. She is able to quickly asses an organization and help increase their understanding and implementation of the Baldrige criteria. Her approach is less about the application, and more focused on using the criteria the way they were designed, to create results and then telling the organization's story. The proof of that is evident in the applications of each organization she works with. They are distinctly different from each other and reflect the thoughts and culture of that organization." - Christy Stephenson, former CEO of RWJUHH

"After several years of writing our application and preparing for Baldrige site visits on our own, we brought in Lori Kirkland to give us feedback from a senior Baldrige examiner's perspective. She was instrumental in preparing our leaders and process teams for the site visit, and in coaching us on what to expect throughout the Baldrige application process." - Larry Schoenecker, President and COO of BI Performance Services

Resumes

Lori Kirkland [download]

Doug Sears [download]

Karly Mucks [download]