Black River Technical College (BRTC) President Martin Eggensperger has been elected to the Governor’s Quality Award Board by the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence, the nonprofit that administers the Governor’s Quality Award and is an affiliated program of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/AIA.
BRTC was the 2022 recipient of the Governor’s Quality Award for Performance Excellence, and is honored to be the second institution of higher education to receive the award in Arkansas.
The new board members will serve alongside existing board members Chair Vanessa Cook from Tyson Foods, Vice-Chair John Burgess from Mainstream Technologies, Treasurer Matt Hamilton from ABB, Aaron Huckaby from Lockheed Martin, Heath Ward from Springdale Water Utilities, and Randy Dennis from DD&F Consulting.
“I’m honored to work with the Arkansas State Chamber and serve the Arkansas Institute for Performance Excellence. Their use of the renowned Baldridge framework provides clear analysis and guidance for significant institutional transformation and improvement,” said Eggensperger.
The award process is organization driven with the organization applying for the award themselves, which drives organizations toward quality principles. Organizations self-assess and carefully review the award-level requirements before deciding at which level to apply. Each level increases the requirements of the applicant to describe systematic processes and results.
In addition to the award recognition, program participants receive an in-depth evaluation and written feedback report that cites strengths and areas for improvement. Only 27 Arkansas organizations have ever received the highest-level.
Dr. Martin Eggensperger has been president of BRTC since June 2019. He has served as vice chancellor of academics at ASU-Mountain Home in Mountain Home, Arkansas; the board-appointed interim president and vice president for instruction at College of the Ouachitas; and as associate vice president for institutional effectiveness, dean then division chair of general studies, and mathematics faculty at Southeast Arkansas College.
He serves on the Arkansas Science Olympiad Board of Directors and is also the organization’s Associate State Director, as the Higher Education Representative. He is also a member of the Arkansas Community Colleges’ governing board and the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) Productivity Funding Formula Workgroup. Eggensperger is an active Randolph County Rotary Club member and North Delta Community Foundation board member.
Eggensperger earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from University of Central Arkansas and his master’s and Ph.D. in applied mathematics from University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Dr. Eggensperger and his wife Jennifer have two children, Zoe and Ben.