Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired provides more than 26,000 participants with services, education and training each year; under her leadership the organization’s assets have grown from $10 million to $72 million.
I grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. In 1865, Barthel Becker, my great grandfather, arrived on a sailing ship (from Germany) and it caught fire and most everyone perished. But he was young and tied a rope around a board and jumped into the water and clung to it for three days until a steamship found him and took him to St. John’s, Newfoundland.
My mother married her high school boyfriend, and coincidentally, I married my high school boyfriend, Bob Jacko. We’ve been married 50 years. The key is to let each person be themselves. When you do get annoyed with each other, at the end of the day you need to remember that ‘I love you.’
I joined the debate team in high school and went to Loyola University in Chicago on a debate scholarship and earned a bachelor’s of business administration. Debating has given me very good speaking skills, logic and the ability to present my case.
I worked as a financial analyst at a large bank in Milwaukee, then became the chief financial officer at the Purdue University business office.
Toward the end of my 22-year career at Purdue, I learned I had a degenerative eye condition (retinitis pigmentosa) and relocated to Miami for what I thought would be a three-month leave of absence to learn about vision rehabilitation.
There are certain ‘aha’ moments when you realize you have to do things differently. People say to me, were you depressed? I keep saying it’s going to happen, but I’ve never been depressed because I don’t want to be fearful. I want the skills I need so I can be a high-performing person despite my vision loss.
The most difficult part of losing your eyesight is that period when you keep trying to see, the pressure of not making a mistake as an executive, the pressure of always striving for excellence but with a hidden disability.
Even though I came from a family of five children, I always had a working mother. She believed that you should have your own identity and your own career.
I called my mother and told her I got my diagnosis, and they said I might go totally blind. And she said ‘I’m going to pray that you do big things for the blind.’ My mother’s prayers were answered, because look where I am today.
I decided to go to Miami Lighthouse and learn how to be a blind person, to learn how to get back my independence. I ended up becoming a member of the board, treasurer, and ultimately, its first blind president and CEO. I fell in love with its mission.
Two irreplaceable programs of that mission are the Miami Lighthouse Academy, where visually impaired early learners share the same curriculum as their sighted peers in the same classroom. Also, our statewide Florida Heiken Children’s Vision Program has provided eye exams and glasses for more than 200,000 low-income children in Florida.
My husband traveled the journey of blindness with me and was always there for me. He’s with me now, repairing braille machines.
I like to take action. And if I take action, I need to have results, that’s part of my personality. I really don’t know ‘no.’
My guide dog’s name is Sama. People don’t talk to kings, but they do talk to dogs. Having a guide dog forces you to have mobility because you have to take them out in the morning, when you’re at work and before you go to bed. So, I have better mobility with a guide dog than I do with a cane.
I love magazines and reading. Through the U.S. Library of Congress and the National Federation of the Blind, you can get the Talking Library Book Service and the auditory version of any newspaper.
I love sports. I can still hit a golf ball quite well.
My favorite food? You’re going to laugh at me, but I’d say café con leche and a piece of Cuban toast.
I was asked to do a book called the Blind Visionary, and I created an acronym called RANK: It stands for Reach out aggressively, Act on opportunities, Never let fear win, and Keep things in perspective. I have always followed that model.
A blind person can do anything a sighted person can do — they just might do it a bit differently.