VisionServe Alliance (VSA) has announced the recipients of its 2024 Annual Awards for leaders in the BVI (Blind and Visually Impaired) community. The award winners, including representatives of current RDPFS grantee organizations, “distinguish themselves through their creativity, commitment, and dedication to improving the lives” of people who are blind or have low vision. These individuals “have made significant and lasting contributions…They set the bar for the entire field…through their insight, courage, and determination, they inspire us all to reach higher, work more innovatively, and dream bigger,” explained Lee Nasehi, VSA’s president and CEO. The award winners will be recognized at ceremonies during VisionServe Alliance’s “Future 2024 Leadership Conference” in Kansas City, MO. They are:
Lifetime Achievement Awards, recognizing “exceptional lifetime contributions in service to individuals who are blind or visually impaired:”
– Don LoGuidice, retired, past CEO of CABVI, Founding member, VSA;
– Kevin Lynch, retiring president and CEO, National Industries for the Blind;
– Nancy D. Miller, retiring executive director and CEO, VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (RDPFS Grantee); and
– Dan Spoone, interim executive director and past president, American Council of the Blind (RDPFS Grantee).
Excellence in Leadership Award, recognizing “exemplary leadership demonstrated by an Executive Director, President, or CEO of a member organization:”
Tammy Owen, president and CEO, VIA.
Cathy Holden Excellence in Managerial Leadership Award, honoring a “high-level employee of a member organization who has made an impact on, contribution to, or led staff in the pursuit of organizational excellence:”
– Melody Bettenhausen, COO, Ensight Skills Center;
– Jenice Heck, COO, Lighthouse Louisiana; and
– Jennifer Lauer, director of Adult Services, St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Roxann Mayros Organizational Champion Award, recognizing a “member of senior management whose cultivation of structure, systems, and best practices advances the efforts of an organization distinguishing itself in the field of blindness and low vision:”
– Alison Clougherty, co-founder, executive director of Programs and Services, Blind Early Services TN (BEST);
– Stacy Cornwall, co-founder, executive director of Finance and Administration, Blind Early Services TV (BEST); and
– Leslie Jones, executive director, The Filomen D’Agostino Greenberg Music School (RDPFS Grantee).
Congratulations to all of the VSA Award recipients!
For more information, visit the webpages announcing VIsionServe Alliance 2024 Annual Award Recipients and describing the VisionServe Alliance – Annual Awards.
