National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Jeannette Johnson on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 13:12 Blog:

• NAD Conference

You could feel the excitement in the air last night as the three NAD CEO Finalists stepped onstage to make their presentations. Each Finalist had 15 minutes to present, and 15 minutes of Q&A. Shane H. Feldman went first, Darlene Goncz-Zangara second, and Howard A. Rosenblum last.

Shane spoke about his vision to elevate NAD for 2020 and beyond. He emphasized his expertise in financial management, especially with NAD’s finances. Aside from finances, Shane spoke at length about the value of using social media to engage the diverse deaf community, so NAD can expand its support base and strengthen its relationship with the associations and affiliates. He went on to say that he believes that effective and efficient operations, transparency, accountability and forward looking strategies were a must. Another point Shane made was that currently the community’s demands from NAD do not match NAD’s resources to meet them, and it is his goal to equalize that imbalance.

The second Finalist to speak was Darlene Goncz Zangara, and she shared an analogy with the audience – a tree is only as strong as its roots, which is as equally true for NAD. The roots were the past, the trunk was the present, and the leaves were the future. She listed three criteria of her vision for NAD: financial freedom, progressive advocacy, and growing the NAD community. Darlene shared her work experience as being a teacher, counselor and a high-level manager with the audience and strongly felt that her diverse job experiences would bring a lot to the table. She also heavily emphasized the importance of having interpersonal skills in order to cultivate strong relationships for support, especially financial support.

Howard, the last Finalist to present, outlined his vision for NAD: Equality, Enforcement, Education, Employment, Enjoyment of life, Expansion of membership. Political contacts and social were important to Howard, and he wanted NAD to become a household name like other organizations were. He declared that he was tired of small changes, and wanted systematic changes. It is important, in Howard’s opinion, that we should always remember the past, particularly Milan 1880, but not be held hostage by it and we all should look forward to the future and anticipate how we should react. During the Q&A session, Howard also told the audience that with zero compromise, failure is guaranteed. NAD and the deaf community have to play the political game to get the results we want.

During the Q&A session, all three candidates took questions on finances and audism, which has been the two main hot issues throughout the conference. Howard was clearly the crowd’s favorite, as the audience repeatedly applauded during Howard’s presentation and Q&A.

After all three presentations, the NAD board announced that they will be gathering feedback from individuals who saw the CEO Finalists’ presentations, since community participation and opinions are important. However, the NAD members and delegates will not vote on who becomes the CEO – the board will be the one who does that.

I wish all of the three the best of luck, and I know the board will pick the best person for the job.