For Immediate Release

ASQ Awards 2007 Freund Scholarship

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 12, 2007– The American Society for Quality (ASQ) has awarded its 2007 Richard A. Freund International Scholarship to Denisa Olteanu, Blacksburg, Va. Named after a past ASQ president, this $5,000 scholarship supports a quality professional’s graduate studies.

Olteanu earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and forecasting from Bucharest Business School in Romania. She came to the United States to study statistics at Virginia Tech. Olteanu received her master’s degree, and now has been accepted into the doctorate program in statistics at Virginia Tech. While working on her statistics degree and starting her doctorate coursework, Olteanu interned in 3M’s Lean Six Sigma Department and became a consultant on behalf of Virginia Tech to Becton & Dickinson in the area of quality control. She also has been a teaching assistant at Virginia Tech.

“At the end of my studies I want to continue working in the quality field. Later I hope to lead initiatives and have the power to change practices and make people aware of the importance of quality improvement,” said Olteanu.

About the Freund Scholarship

The Richard A. Freund International Scholarship honors the memory of Richard A. Freund, a past president of the American Society for Quality (1972-73). Freund was recognized internationally for his contributions to quality, international goodwill, and tireless scholarship. Awarded annually for the past 13 years, the scholarship supports a candidate’s graduate study of the theory and application of quality control, quality assurance, quality improvement, and total quality management. It covers the engineering, statistical, managerial, and behavioral foundations of those fields. The scholarship is offered to American Society for Quality members and nonmembers worldwide.

The American Society for Quality, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for 60 years. With more than 93,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results, and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide.  As champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®.  ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.