In January 2007, the Governance Task Force of the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, consisting of several Lighthouse Board members and the CEO, Virginia Jacko, recommended that the Board take a number of steps to clarify its governing role and strengthen its structure and processes.  The Board overwhelmingly approved the Task Force recommendations, including a new standing committee structure, and in the 13 or so months since then the recommendations have been fully implemented, with Virginia’s enthusiastic backing and strong support. I was privileged to work closely with Virginia and her Task Force colleagues in my capacity as “Governance Counsel” to the effort, and I have stayed in close touch with the Lighthouse since then.  This might sound like another consulting case study, but there’s a twist, as I’ll explain.  Let me back up a bit.

In late summer 2006 I found a message on my voice mail from a senior executive at the Lighthouse, saying that their CEO, Virginia, was interested in talking with me about strengthening the Lighthouse Board of Directors’ governing capacity.  I was pleased, but not terribly surprised, since a few months earlier I had spent an hour talking with a couple of senior executives from the Lighthouse after a workshop I had presented for the Broward County United Way, and I knew they were enthusiastic about putting the board development ideas I’d shared to work if they could swing it.  When Virginia and I connected by phone a day or two later, she explained that, as a new CEO, she was very interested in building a really strong partnership with her Board and that she was determined to have her Board play an active role in setting strategic directions, rather than just sitting back and reacting to finished staff work.  Convinced that Virginia and I could work productively together, I sent her a proposal that was accepted, and we arranged to meet at her office a week or so later.

Thus began my collaboration with one of the most visionary, insightful, and energetic CEOs I’ve been privileged to work with in many a year.  Oh, one other thing, Virginia is totally blind.  Experiencing gradual vision loss while she was serving as Director of Financial Affairs at Purdue University, where she spent 24 years, Virginia realized that her life, professional and personal, was at a dramatic turning point.  She could retreat from the wider world, falling victim to a health catastrophe, or she could take action to ensure an active professional life that capitalized on her substantial expertise and extensive experience.  Virginia tells me that she never for a moment considered retreating.  In 2001, she relocated to Miami to receive vocational rehabilitation training at the Miami Lighthouse.  Having successful completed her rehabilitation program, she became a public spokesperson for the Lighthouse, eventually joined its Board, and served as the Lighthouse’s interim President & CEO before her permanent appointment.  She’s done an outstanding job since taking the helm, securing the largest single-donor gift in Lighthouse history - $1.1 million – growing program participation, expanding the facility, and more.  In May 2007, Virginia was named Business Woman of the Year in the Nonprofit Leader Category by the South Florida Business Journal. 

What an extraordinary leader!  Meeting after meeting in Virginia’s office over the months we worked together, I found myself forgetting that she was blind, reminded every now and then when I noticed her guide dog Tracker lying beside her chair.  I’m sure her success in a challenging role has much to do with her keen intelligence and rich professional experience, but many people equally qualified would probably have thrown in the towel, content to retire from active professional engagement, and very few, I’d venture to say, would have tackled the CEOship of a major nonprofit agency under the circumstances.  What really made the difference, so far as I can tell, is Virginia’s fundamental optimism and tremendous self-confidence.  Can this be learned?  I’m not sure, and I’d be interested in the reader’s opinion.