Performance Excellence Network recognizes 11 Benedictine Communities with Regional PEN Awards
The Performance Excellence Network (PEN) presented 11 Benedictine Communities with a 2025 Performance Excellence Commitment Level Award at the May 8 PEN igniteEX 2026 conference.
The Benedictine Communities honored were:
- Benedictine Living Community-Bismarck**
- Benedictine Living Community-Dickinson**
- Benedictine Living Community-Ellendale**
- Benedictine Living Community-Garrison**
- Benedictine Living Community-Wahpeton**
**These sites represent the first North Dakota recipients in the program’s history
- Benedictine Living Community-Anoka
- Benedictine Living Community-Cold Spring
- Benedictine Living Community-Duluth
- Benedictine Living Community-Northfield
- Benedictine Living Community-Shakopee Windermere Way
- Benedictine Living Community-Winona
The Performance Excellence Award is based on the Baldrige Framework and reflects a rigorous, independent evaluation of an organization’s leadership, strategy, customers, measurement and knowledge management, workforce, and operations. The process includes in-depth review by trained examiners and detailed feedback to help organizations strengthen their systems and improve results over time.
“These organizations demonstrate what it means to commit to improvement in a meaningful way,” said Amy Czechowicz, PEN president and CEO. “They’ve chosen to step into a rigorous process, invite feedback and build stronger systems over time. That takes discipline, and it takes courage.”
The Performance Excellence Network was founded in 1987 by the Minnesota Legislature and Governor Rudy Perpich and later became an independent nonprofit organization. PEN helps organizations improve performance by identifying strengths and opportunities, sharing proven practices, and building networks that support learning and growth.