Glenn Hoagland, the new CEO and president of The Seeing Eye Inc., had two pretty good role models.
His father ran the dairy farm at the old Greystone Park State Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, instilling a love of nature that Hoagland would pursue over a 35-year career managing conservation areas in New York’s Hudson Valley.
His mother was active in the community, refusing to quit when surgery left her blind at age 13.
She never had a Seeing Eye dog. But Hoagland remembers being fascinated by these guide dogs during boyhood visits to Morristown from the family’s Basking Ridge home. Then as now, the dogs, instructors and new owners navigated the downtown during training walks.
“My mother…always talked about The Seeing Eye with great reverence,” Hoagland, 59, said over lunch recently at The Seeing Eye’s rolling 60-acre campus in Morris Township.
He assumed leadership of the famed 90-year-old organization last month, succeeding Jim Kutsch, a revered figure who retired after more than a decade on the job.
The independent spirit and wisdom of Hoagland’s late mother Frances inspired him as he pondered his career change.
She had learned Braille at Overbrook Academy in Philadelphia, and operated a prototype Braille switchboard at a rope factory in Burlington. She also volunteered in Cranbury public schools, reading to students from her Braille books. And she was active in the Presbyterian Church in Liberty Corner.
Frances expected three things from her son:
“One is, you have to learn a foreign language. Two is you have to play a musical instrument. And three is, you have to figure out a way to give back to people throughout your lifetime,” Hoagland recounted.
So he dabbled en Français. He plays drums in Cross Cultural Connection, a jazz combo that raises money for music scholarships.
And for more than a quarter of a century, he served as a steward for the environment, as president of the nonprofit Mohonk Preserve, an expanse 10 times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park.
He has a geography degree from the State University of New York-New Paltz, and a master’s in rural planning and development from the University of Guelph in Canada.
Seeking a change, he wondered how to bring his nonprofit experience to a more people-oriented setting.
“I said to myself, you know, the organization I would really like to run, if there was ever a possibility, would be The Seeing Eye. And then, like a year later, I saw the job ad. And I said, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring.”
MIRACLE DOGS, SAINTS, AND ANGELS
Turns out he shared something in common with the recruiter. Her mother was blind, too.
“She said that’s why she took the position of recruiting for this. She said, ‘Well, you know, it’s kind of a long shot. I’m going to see if I can advance your candidacy. But you’re kind of a dark horse candidate. You don’t have any background in this.'”
Now, Hoagland finds himself “really, really, really proud and humbled” to follow in Jim Kutsch’s footsteps.
Hoagland oversees a $27 million annual operation, with a staff of 150 that includes a geneticist involved in breeding German shepherds and Golden/ Labrador mixes at a breeding center opened in 2005.
Each year, The Seeing Eye matches these dogs with about 260 blind people–who get a month of intensive training with their dog for about the price of a VIP pass to a show at the Mayo Performing Arts Center.
Hoagland comes to the position with a generalist’s zeal, and an insider’s appreciation of the challenges posed by blindness.
Seeing Eye Chairman Thomas Duffy said a combination of Hoagland’s professional and personal experiences made him stand out in an impressive field of candidates from a national search.
“His consistent track record of cultivating and leading complex non-profit organizations was one that we knew would translate to the culture and structure of The Seeing Eye,” Duffy said via email.
“In addition to his personal admiration for The Seeing Eye, Glenn has demonstrated that he embodies our organization’s core values, which include mission passion, stewardship, respect and teamwork.”
One of Hoagland’s first events at The Seeing Eye was a reunion of about 200 graduates. They reminded him of his mom.
“It’s just amazing to meet people who have really overcome adversity in their lives to go on to be so courageous, to not let anything hold them back. I think that’s the profile of our students and graduates. They’re here because they really seek that mobility and independence.”
Every day brings new inspirations, he said. The dogs continually amaze him–they even learn to guide their blind masters around low-hanging tree branches.
And then there are the instructors, who walk an average of eight- to 10 miles a day, in all kinds of weather. They even make house calls–visiting graduates and their dogs as needed all across North America.
“People call it a Miracle Dog,” Hoagland said. “There are miracles. But there also are saints and angels. The people who work here are saints and angels.”
Priorities for the new CEO include keeping The Seeing Eye on strong financial footing. It costs the organization about $70,000 to breed, raise and train a Seeing Eye dog. Nobody who seeks a guide dog is turned away for financial reasons, Hoagland said. Fundraising, which accounts for about a quarter of The Seeing Eye’s budget, is important.
“You can never rest on your laurels,” he said. “We’re so proud, and so grateful.”
The Seeing Eye also is collaborating with United Airlines, the federal Transportation Security Administration, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on how to accommodate passengers with guide dogs.
And Hoagland anticipates working with designers of a traffic roundabout proposed for Morristown’s M Station redevelopment, to ensure it can be traversed safely by his teams.
Hoagland and his wife Melissa, a retired teacher, have moved to Mendham with their teenagers — a Volpino Italiano named Zen and a Cockapoo mix named Zachary Tailer. The couple’s daughter, Erin, works for the Duchess Land Conservancy.
Conservation was deeply satisfying, Hoagland acknowledged.
“I had what I thought at the time was the best nonprofit job,” he said. “Now I know there was one better.”
