MIAMI — Virginia Jacko, President and CEO of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, is the recipient of the 2026 Impact Advocate Award.
Given by Children’s Week Florida, the award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in advocating for public policy changes and programs that significantly improve the lives of children, teens and families.
Jacko, who became blind as an adult, was a financial executive at Purdue University and has spent two decades transforming Miami Lighthouse into a national model for inclusive education and accessible healthcare.
The honor was presented last month during the Advocacy Dinner & Awards Ceremony in Tallahassee.
“Advocacy is at the heart of everything we do at Miami Lighthouse,” said Jacko. “Whether we are creating inclusive classrooms where visually impaired and sighted children learn side-by-side or deploying mobile clinics to provide essential eyecare to underserved students, our goal is to ensure that no child’s potential is limited by their vision.”
Under Jacko’s leadership, Miami Lighthouse established the Miami Lighthouse Academy, which serves students from pre-kindergarten to the third grade.
She also created and fundraised for the interdisciplinary Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) Collaborative Center to provide specialized care for children living with the condition.
Miami Lighthouse is also the home of the Florida Heiken Children’s Vision Program.
Through its fleet of five mobile eyecare units, along with a network of optometrists, the program provides dilated eye exams and glasses at no cost to students in Florida schools.
To date, the Florida Heiken Program has benefitted more than 225,000 children.
For more information about Miami Lighthouse, visit https://www.miamilighthouse.org/.
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