Our Speakers
Our Speakers
Are you interested in learning more about the Baldrige framework? If so, you've come to the right place. We offer free Introduction to Baldrige speaking engagements. Contact us today about speaking to your class, business, or other interested groups.
Heath Wright
Heath Wright is a leadership coach and organizational systems advisor who helps leaders build healthy organizations that deliver consistent results. He serves as CEO of the Oklahoma Quality Foundation and leads People Focused Solutions, where he works with executives and leadership teams to strengthen leadership, strategy, workforce engagement, and operational performance.
His work draws from the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework and the Brilliance in the Basics leadership model, helping leaders discover reality clearly, align people and priorities, and multiply results through simple leadership disciplines practiced consistently.
Kaitlin Hixson
A continuous improvement professional and speaker with over 10 years of experience in the healthcare space, I’m passionate about helping organizations simplify complexity, strengthen performance, and build cultures rooted in accountability and growth. I focus on practical, people-centered approaches to continuous improvement, equipping teams with tools and mindsets they can apply immediately to drive meaningful, lasting results.
Coach Bill Blankenship
Coach Bill Blankenship brings more than four decades of leadership and championship performance to the Journey to Excellence. Over a 41-year coaching career, including 31 years as a high school head coach, he built high-performing programs at Eastwood Christian, Spiro, Edmond Memorial, Union, Fayetteville (AR), and Owasso—earning six state championships and compiling a remarkable 296–90 record. He later served as Head Coach at the University of Tulsa, where his team won a Conference Championship, the Liberty Bowl, and appeared in the Armed Forces Bowl, after earlier collegiate assistant coaching roles at Tulsa and Memphis that included multiple bowl appearances. A native of Spiro, Oklahoma, Blankenship graduated from Spiro High School and was a University of Tulsa football letterman. Throughout his career, he has been known for building disciplined systems, developing leaders, and creating cultures where teams pursue excellence together. Those who have worked with him know he has a rare ability to encourage excellence with only a few words—clarifying the standard, inspiring the effort, and helping people rise to their best. Coach Blankenship and his wife Angie, married since 1978, have three sons, three daughters-in-law, and thirteen grandchildren.
Erin Lee
Erin Lee is passionate about helping organizations and the people they serve reach their fullest potential. With more than a decade of experience leading strategy, continuous improvement, and organizational change initiatives, she enjoys solving complex problems, aligning people around a shared vision, and turning strategy into measurable results. Her work has spanned healthcare, technology, manufacturing, and nonprofit organizations, where she has led transformational initiatives focused on organizational effectiveness, process improvement, and change management.
Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University and an MBA from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is a Prosci-certified Change Management Practitioner and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Passionate about helping organizations achieve excellence, Erin is honored to serve on the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma Quality Foundation. She believes continuous improvement extends beyond processes - it is about creating cultures where people feel valued, empowered, and equipped to do their best work. In addition to her service with OQF, Erin also serves on the boards of Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC) and Junior League of Oklahoma City (JLOC), currently serving as Fundraising Vice President for JLOC. She is committed to strengthening mission-driven organizations that create meaningful opportunities and lasting impact across Oklahoma.