My Third Act, a Message from Nicole Harris

June 21, 2025, marks my 11th year as president & CEO of the National Glass Association. It is also the date I will retire after 35 years at NGA. By next Spring, the NGA Board of Directors will have selected my successor, who will work with the Board and our members to continue building NGA as a highly responsive and effective trade association representing the entire glass and glazing industry.

I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished together. The NGA is at its strongest in its 76-year history and executing daily on its purpose, vision, mission and strategic goals at the highest levels of energy and excellence. This has everything to do with the NGA staff who show a deep commitment to our mission, the industry we proudly serve and each other.

This is the time of year for staff performance reviews. At NGA, the first step of the process is a self-reflection, an opportunity to articulate what we’ve each done in a year to benefit NGA members. As you’d expect, I am doing mine with a longer lens, spurred by my peers, staff, friends and family asking what I’d want my legacy to be.

I’ve already touched on one of my proudest accomplishments. Several of NGA’s top staff leaders started with me 30+ years ago, growing in responsibilities and authority. They in turn have hired, mentored and grown an excellent team of 46 people who live our staff values every day. We have overcome multiple challenges over the years, a show-stopping hurricane and a world-wide pandemic, to name two. The NGA and our team emerged stronger after each crisis, forged by common purpose, focus and deep care.

Another personal legacy milestone is the NGA-GANA combination in 2018, resulting in a new, and more impactful trade association for the glass and glazing industry. For me, it was more than the culmination of two years of visioning, articulating a different future and persistent persuasion. Leading up to those two years were two decades of interacting with the likes of Bill Birch and Greg Carney and the tightest-knit group of dedicated member volunteers I’ve ever known. In mid-2016 when I learned their executive director stepped down, I pushed very hard to forge a single, unified glass and glazing trade association, ensuring that the unrivaled technical and advocacy work and the people producing it—GANA staff, consultants and engaged members—would carry on and ultimately expand their vital work on behalf of our industry. NGA’s Annual Reports tell the story of compounding results.

The clock is ticking as I write this; this news deadline, my first meeting of the day, year-end reviews, and my keen awareness of the quickly passing days between now and June 21, 2025. If that last bit reads nostalgic, it is. My writing journal has two lists: career milestones and ideas for my “third act” pursuits. I haven’t decided on what those will be yet, but this I do know: By every measure, the National Glass Association is ready for whatever comes next.