The 2025–2027 Jr. NAD Ambassador, Marisa Goff, recently visited NAD headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland to sit down with new CEO Nick Kiego for a conversation about his first 30 days on the job.
Over the course of a 15-minute interview, Marisa asks Nick how things have been going, what his first few days looked like, what has surprised him, who he’s been meeting with, and what he’ll be focused on in the months ahead. Nick also asks Marisa for her perspective on how NAD can better engage Deaf youth.
It was an honest, easygoing conversation. Nick spoke openly about the work ahead and the need for more volunteer support from the community, along with his optimism for what’s next. We hope this gives members a genuine look at where things stand and where NAD is headed.
Thumbnail Image Description: A man in a suit and a young woman in a blue shirt sit in chairs against a blue wall, both smiling and looking at each other.
Jr.NAD Ambassador Interview NAD CEO
Video Transcript/Description
Thumbnail Image Description: A man in a suit and a young woman in a blue shirt sit in chairs against a blue wall, both smiling and looking at each other.
MARISA: Hi! I’m Marisa Goff, I’m the Jr. NAD ambassador for 2025-2027, now I’m excited to tell everyone that I’ve come here today to interview the new CEO, please introduce yourself.
NICK: Hello, I’m Nick Kiego, your new NAD CEO.
MARISA: It’s been a month since you’ve started. How is it going?
NICK: It’s going real good, I’ve really taken a deep dive into the work. We have a lot more work ahead of us, but I’m very excited, I feel very optimistic for the future of NAD.
MARISA: Yes, I’m definitely looking forward to see your work in the coming months.
MARISA: Since you’ve started, what has surprised you the most on the job?
NICK: What has surprised me most in the last thirty days? First, how small our office really is. I’m sure you thought that when you first visited today, seeing our narrow and simple office. I’m the same, I had envisioned a bigger office, only to find out it was a small one. And second, how small our team is. Including myself, we only have 6 employees. Just the six of us. And I’m really surprised at how hard they’ve been working the last two to three years with little resources, attention, or recognition. Right away, I felt immensely proud to have them as a team, they’re all real workhorses, giving it their all- quietly without anyone knowing what they do. I hope to change that going forward, to bring the recognition their work deserves. Because they’ve really carried NAD through some challenging years lately. Those are the two things that surprise me most.
NICK: I’m curious, what do you think of our office?
MARISA: I thought it’d be big. Maybe there was a NAD headquarters, a building of their own. But then I realized it was just a building with various companies, where NAD only claimed one floor, then I realized it was much smaller than that, not even a whole floor. So, yeah, it’s nice to come here and see it, but it’s definitely not what I expected. In a good way, of course.
(laughter)
NICK: (Speaking to person off camera) What? What was the last thing said?
MARISA: (Speaking to person off camera) That.
NICK: You know some people can take it the wrong way, I don’t want them to. For me although, this might be bit of a public relations strategy, but I really do want people to see the reality of the situation. This is NAD’s current situation, I do want to change and improve it, but I- need your help with that, and I don’t want to fabricate that NAD is in perfect shape. That everything is beautiful, golden, and shiny like a diamond- no. It is not. So right now is my opportunity to show that to everyone, but if I try to say that two years later, it’d be harder for me to frame it that way, because it’d seem like I made it that way. I’d rather do it now, when I have no prior history, coming right in, to show everyone what it’s currently like, then let’s, together, make it better going forward.
MARISA: Yeah, I agree. When I grew up during high school, I always thought that NAD was a huge organization with money and everything. When I went to the JR. NAD conference, I always thought that NAD had money and that they should invest in us. Then over time, I realized, oh, no they didn’t have enough resources. And how we could really support them, as a community to another. We can’t start with big steps, but with small ones first. Then we’d reach our goals. So I really do agree, show the reality of the situation, so everyone can be more open both in mind and heart, and help each other.
NICK: I think that is critical, to keeping an open mind and heart, right now… I’m not sure the community is there yet.
MARISA: What are some of your fastest wins so far?
NICK: One, we immediately needed a new webmaster slash IT systems administrator, we really needed that, because the NAD website needs improvement, there are some broken links, and whatnot. So just last week, we got a new person who can start on fixing some of the websites. So I’m happy to have found someone within my first 30 days. And second, I’ve been working with our Youth Programs Director, Claudia, we’ve immediately found someone who is willing to be a volunteer grant writer focused solely on the Youth program. Because we really need more money and support to help grow the Youth program. And now we have a great, experienced person who will work with us as a grant writer. Those are two big wins- and, a third- that I’d add is that I am increasingly more confident in understanding NAD’s current financial situation. Business operations, as well. Because for me, NAD’s finances are a top priority so in the last 3-4 weeks, I’ve been really absorbed in the work discussing with our CFO, our accountant, and our team, to really get the entire perspective on that. So right now my level of confidence is pretty high, so these three are the big fast wins for myself.
MARISA: Congratulations!
MARISA: What’s your next big focus for the next few months?
NICK: For the next few months.. One, finances will always be a top priority for me. Because I strongly feel that if you do not stabilize NAD’s finances, then all of our other priorities, commitments, and work will be hard to implement or set up without having a strong financial stability. So that’s my first priority. Second, I really want to invest into our current staff, those who really carry the work of NAD, I want to better understand their work challenges, their workload, and how I can help make them more effective in their work, and how I can bring more resources and support to their area of work. Because I feel like we have to make sure that our core programs are strong. And that is the Legal Advocacy Center, the Youth program, and Policy work, those three. That’s what I really want to focus on for the next few months. I also really want to focus on how we can bring more resources for NAD. Right now our greatest challenge is that we need more people. Unfortunately right now NAD cannot hire more staff, or create paid positions. But I do know that the community wants to see NAD improve and become elevated. So soon I want to create an open call for those who are willing to volunteer, maybe they have experience doing grant writing, maybe retired lawyers could help with intake of new prospective clients that need legal support. Volunteers who are experts in policy work in telecommunications, education, and other various areas. I want to bring them all in, so we have more people power. To do the work we need to do. Yeah. These are my areas of focus, yeah.
MARISA: How can we, as a community, support you?
NICK: First of all, I think, just to have some grace. For the amount of work it’ll take. It won’t happen overnight, it won’t always be fast, nor will it always be perfect, clean, and in order. It might feel like we need to go a few steps backwards before we actually move forward. I just hope that the community has some grace and patience. Second, I can’t really emphasize enough how much we need more people power. So I hope people will be willing to give their time, for like what I mentioned before, to support with grant writing, to help answer emails, and one area that we need a lot of support in is in our communications area. Right now, we have no dedicated communications staff. We’re really relying on volunteers, like today, for this video interview, we’re 100% relying on you and other people behind the camera to help arrange this. I hope I can attract a more robust communications team, but they’d have to be volunteer based. That’d help us better connect with our community.
You know, I’m now the new CEO, and I have many different roles and areas in my work, but one of them is answering emails about membership statuses. We have individuals asking whether or not they’re still a member, so some people I reply to about their status are shocked when they see that the CEO is personally answering their emails. Yes, that’s because right now my staff have a huge workload, and they have no bandwidth to add more. So I try to take on the work that I can, but I hope to find volunteers who can take on that work. So that we can really focus on what’s most important for NAD. So to recap, grace, patience, and their time to volunteer for the organization, that’s how they can support us.
MARISA: Based on my observations, NAD does a lot of things, you know, not everyone knows what NAD is truly doing from the inside. Not everything looks as it seems, especially online, there’s more to it behind the scenes. So you know, when we have any frustrations, or feedback, or anything like that, instead of just stating these, we should be supporting you by being more collaborative, like you said.
NICK: Yes. And, I want to acknowledge that a lot of people’s criticisms and feedback are valid, yes- I listen to these as well. Again, like I said, we need the people and resources to do something about it. So I really hope the community can answer to our call of support.
MARISA: When you first onboarded as a new CEO, I’m sure you got numerous requests to meet with people, so who did you first meet with, and why?
NICK: Great question. Yes, a lot of people wanted to meet with me. The first person I met with was our CFO, Chief Financial Officer, because I wanted to first understand our financial situation. Like I’ve mentioned, my top priority is NAD’s finances. So for the first three days, I dived in headfirst discussing and understanding our budget, how we monitor it, what our investments look like, along other things. That was my first three days, immersed with our CFO. Next, I met with our two directors, we have a director for the Youth program, and the Legal services. I sat down with each one of them, because they’re part of core programs for NAD. So for me it was just listening to them, giving them the opportunity to explain some of the recent history of their work, and what these changes looked like, what was most important in their area, what their greatest challenges were, and the ideas that they have to improve it for the better. So I just listened for a few hours for each director. Then after that I met with the rest of the staff, I’d spend one-on-one time with them, once again just hearing them out, asking them how they arrived to NAD, why they continue to work for NAD, what their experience was like for the last 2-3 years, and what type of work culture they’d want to have. What are some ways that I can support them directly as a CEO? What resources can I help bring? All of these questions. Then after that I started meeting with more external people, like the DHHCAN group, I met with TDI, I met with many other groups of people that are more outside of NAD. But I strongly believe that how you prioritize your time reflects how you prioritize your organization, so for me, my priorities were, finances, my staff, my team, and my partnerships. So I felt my first month reflected those priorities.
MARISA: I’m sure that out of the many people that had conversations with you, there were some valuable tips that you kept in mind. What were these?
NICK: Yeah, there were lots and lots of wonderful advice from different leaders and experts. Lots. Yeah, I truly appreciated those, and- there’s more to come. It was just a scratch of the surface of different groups of people who I should meet with, again, it’s been only 30 days on the job. So yeah, I will continue to meet with more people.
NICK: Now I know you’ve been interviewing me, but I also want to ask you some questions. As our current JR. NAD ambassador, what do you think NAD can do more of to better improve in our recruiting of Deaf youth?
MARISA: I was involved with JR. NAD organizations for all of high school, and I didn’t see more JR. NAD clubs in different events, I feel like state associations, local organizations or clubs could reach out to us and collaborate more with us. We could be more visible in events and set up a booth so that we can have stronger chapters and keep our events going.
NICK: So, give JR. NAD some more opportunities to be part of the community, in different capacities, such as state, local, and more?
MARISA: And, NAD usually has events occurring, but we as youth feel very behind or left out. I think you need to invite us to your events more, so we can stay on track and maybe we have some new ideas to help solve some issues.
NICK: I agree. I think NAD as an organization has to do more to involve JR. NAD some more. The elder generation has to remember that we, youth, are your future. For me, personally, the Youth program is critical for NAD because it sets and creates that pipeline for future members to keep engaging with NAD. And lately when I ask people why they are involved with NAD, those who are most loyal and passionate for NAD, I notice started with their youth-
MARISA: Yes, but now that our current generation uses social media, more than interacting in person, which we shouldn’t do, so how do you find that balance between in-person events and social media posts, so that we can find out more information about events and what NAD has to offer so we can have these opportunities?
NICK: I think maybe we should look at social media as a way to give anyone a small taste of what it’s like, and if they want the entire meal (experience), to come in person. To our events, conferences, and socialize that’s where they can truly feast on Deaf culture, on NAD gatherings. In other words, social media should be a preview through a window and you get a glimpse of what it looks like, only to want to come inside the house of NAD.
MARISA: Yeah. I think NAD could collaborate with youth by using their instagrams, vlogs, and networks, so people my age could see my videos and connect to NAD. We’d give you an easier job than trying to reach everyone, by just empowering in us.
NICK: Yeah, I agree. I hope I get to utilize you as a JR. NAD ambassador and help us figure out how to get there.
MARISA: Yes! I look forward to working with you.
NICK: Me too.
MARISA: Thank you for taking this interview with me.
NICK: Thank you for coming, I enjoyed talking with you and getting to know you better, and earlier off camera, we were discussing different ideas on how to get more involved with JR. NAD, and supporting Deaf youth, and I wanted you to know that I will continue to keep that conversation going. After this interview, that is.
MARISA: Yes, let’s do it.