Deaf Services Center head is resigning, blaming 'toxic culture' and 'back-stabbing' staff

Dean Narciso, The Columbus Dispatch
·3 min read
Greg Kellison, who is resigning as interim executive director of the Deaf Services Center after only four months on the job
Greg Kellison, who is resigning as interim executive director of the Deaf Services Center after only four months on the job

The embattled head of the Worthington-based Deaf Services Center is resigning amid accusations that he had no interest in learning sign language or working with clients the agency serves.

In his resignation letter, DSC interim executive director Greg Kellison blamed a "toxic culture," a back-stabbing staff and dysfunctional organization for resigning after only four months in the current position.  His resignation is effective June 30.

He said he accepted the interim executive director position earlier this year, confident that he could straighten out "difficult financial straights."

"Little did I know that, DSC’s real problems were not financial (as dire as those problems are)," Kellison wrote. "DSC’s real problems lie with the vicious, back-stabbing and duplicitous culture the organization is awash in.

"No amount of financial finesse or managerial leadership can fix an agency determined to do itself in. The culture is toxic, many of the staff are petty and vicious, and no amount of financial or managerial leadership can fix the culture," he wrote.

Kellison had been the organization's director of advancement and community engagement since 2018 before taking over as interim director, according to his LinkedIn profile.  In the previous position, he worked "to assist the CEO and the board with growing revenues and enhancing the organization's stability through board recruitment and training, policy development, process improvement, and a boost in community connections."

Cheryl Prusinski, an advocate for the deaf, speaks in March to a crowd of about 50 members of the deaf community who were protesting the appointment of an interim executive director who is not deaf outside Deaf Services Center in Worthington.
Cheryl Prusinski, an advocate for the deaf, speaks in March to a crowd of about 50 members of the deaf community who were protesting the appointment of an interim executive director who is not deaf outside Deaf Services Center in Worthington.

In March, dozens of people from the deaf community gathered outside the Worthington headquarters at 5830 N. High St., to protest Kellison's appointment, upset because they say he was not sensitive to their needs, not willing to meet with them and unwilling to learn sign language.

Read more: Deaf advocates want leader to be member of "our population" 

Deaf community members gathered again earlier this month at the Ohio Statehouse, asking for new leadership at the organization, which helps the deaf, hard-of-hearing and deafblind with sign and spoken-language interpreting services, speech-to-text services, American Sign Language classes, job educational awareness and advocacy efforts, youth services (including an overnight camp in collaboration with other organizations) and communication equipment programs.

Kellison said in his letter to the board that he did the best he could "under extraordinarily challenging circumstances."

"I took the position with the expectation that my skills in financial management and fundraising would help turn DSC around," he wrote. "Little did I know that I would also need to be a magician, a miracle worker and a mind reader. Little did I know that I would need to be an HR specialist, a program manager, a development director, a grant writer as well as an Interim Executive Director all at the same time.

"All the best as you search for someone willing to step into this mess."

The agency employs 34 people in the state and operates other offices in Portsmouth and Toledo. It's current annual budget is about $2.2 million.

Vincent Sabino, who is deaf and and is an activist for the deaf community, said in an email that he's pleased Kellison is gone and looks forward to someone more appropriate to lead DSC.

"Yes, it is what we wanted," said Sabino. "He was very unkind to individual deaf people (we call that audism)."

An employee of the agency, who asked that her name not be published out of concern for her job and fearing retaliation, agreed with Kellison that the culture at DSC is toxic. But she said Kellison never even gave a proper introduction yet alone made an attempt to change the culture.

"We didn't get a 'Hey, welcome to the team,' " she said. "He wasn't responding or handling things the way he could have."

The deaf community, including her close relative, "just feel like they want to be heard and no one is listening."

dnarciso@dispatch.com

@DeanNarciso

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Head of deaf services agency resigning post after four months