PODCAST JANUARY 31, 2024
Meet Sharon Giovinazzo as she talks about how National Industries for the Blind (NIB) agencies can help people with vision loss reach their career goals. Find out how you can gain employment, achieve financial freedom, and secure benefits while making a real difference in the blind and visually impaired community.
In this week’s inspiring episode of Heard & Empowered, Dr. Hoby Wedler meets with Sharon Giovinazzo, the CEO of Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, San Francisco. Sharon shares her journey from losing her vision to working on the manufacturing floor, rising through the ranks, and eventually becoming CEO.
She emphasizes the importance of starting somewhere in the working world, and the opportunities for career upward mobility in the NIB network of nonprofit agencies. Sharon also discusses the services provided by Lighthouse for the Blind, San Francisco, and encourages individuals to overcome the fear of losing benefits and take the leap into employment, highlighting the dignity and financial stability that come with having a job.
Join the conversation to learn more about skill development, career upward mobility, diverse job opportunities, and good salaries offered by NIB agencies, plus the personal sense of pride that comes with all the new achievements. Don’t miss this episode!
What You’ll Learn:
Featured on the Show:
Sharon Giovinazzo brings more than two decades of experience leading organizations dedicated to advocating for and serving the needs of the blind and visually impaired. She will join LightHouse after serving as President and CEO of the World Services for the Blind.
“I am honored to join the leadership team at LightHouse as its new CEO,” said Sharon Giovinazzo. “This organization has a long and successful track record of driving and achieving independence, equality and self-reliance for the community. This commitment to a focused driven mission, impact and success mirrors my own values, and I look forward to working with a dynamic team to advance the organization’s priorities and expand its reach.”
In her new role as CEO of LightHouse, Giovinazzo will be responsible for leading the organization’s dedicated team of blindness advocates, educators, and professionals while growing the value of the organization to its members, donors, sponsors, partners, and other stakeholders. She will drive efforts to promote the independence and equality of the community, while strengthening the organization and its programs.
“We’re pleased that Sharon will join us as CEO of LightHouse,” said Dr Sharon Sacks, LightHouse Board Chair. “Her strategic drive and her long, distinguished career advocating for and guiding the community make her the perfect choice to lead the LightHouse into the next phase of its development. We’re thrilled to welcome her aboard.”
Giovinazzo brings extensive experience in organizational management, strategic planning, community impact, public policy and advocacy. Prior to her role as President and CEO of the World Services for the Blind, she served for nearly a decade in various roles for the Raleigh Lions Clinic for the Blind (RLCB) where she assisted in the development and implementation of the agency’s $34 million budget, including determining staffing and operational needs and expenditures.
Prior to that, during her tenure with National Industries for the Blind (NIB), Giovinazzo is credited with providing the leadership for cultivating and understanding the AbilityOne programs with Congress, Federal Executive Branch Agencies, consumer and commercial organizations concerned with disability policy. Throughout her career, Sharon has been an advocate for public policy in legislative affairs and regulations. Prior to the NIB, she held positions with the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI) in Utica, NY; was appointed Chair to the State Rehabilitation Council in 2006 and supervised the operations of a DEPMEDS training facility with the US Army.
Sharon Giovinazzo holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Services Management from SUNY Empire State College and a dual master’s as an MSW and an MBA. Additionally, she holds a Certificate of Management in Business Administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
Sharon: I tell everybody that when people tell you that something is impossible, do you know what impossible actually spells?
Hoby: What does it spell?
Sharon: I am possible.
Hoby: I love that.
Sharon: And so every one of you out there listening to the podcast, you are possible and I want you to go around every day saying, “I am possible.” And believe it, and rise to the occasion, and go out there and live your dreams. There’s so much of the world out there to explore and we want to help you explore it.
Welcome to the Heard & Empowered podcast presented by National Industries for the Blind. You’re not just a listener here, you’re a catalyst for change. Whether you’re blind, visually impaired or an ally, this is your ultimate resource for building a fulfilling career and an enriching life. We’re on a mission to shift perceptions, open hearts and minds, and unlock unparalleled job opportunities for the BVI community. Ready to be heard and empowered? Let’s welcome our host, Dr. Hoby Wedler.
Hoby: This is a special episode recorded at the 2023 National Industries for the Blind Conference in Washington DC. Please excuse any audio quirks as we capture these conversations, but we guarantee the wisdom is pure gold.
Welcome back to the Heard & Empowered podcast. Today I’m totally excited, beyond excited to be chatting with a dear friend and colleague, Sharon Giovinazzo. Sharon, welcome.
Sharon: Thanks, Hoby.
Hoby: Good to be here with you. So, Sharon, what is your current place of employment?
Sharon: So I am currently the CEO of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind.
Hoby: Awesome. Awesome. You guys do great work and we’ve had the pleasure of doing some work with you and it’s a great organization. I would love to, just for a minute, get a rundown of your past and what got you into blindness services and what is your sort of journey?
And we can talk about it in bits and pieces along the way, but how’d you get from the beginning of your career to where you are right now?
Sharon: So I kind of liken it to baptism by fire.
Hoby: There you go.
Sharon: I entered the blindness field because I lost my vision at the age of 31. And I was in upstate New York at the time and received services through Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Utica, New York. And I had no marketable skills as a person who was blind.
And so after receiving my rehab, I started college in January of 2002. And then I started work the same month on the industry’s line. Believe it or not, I was packaging gloves at the time.
Hoby: Wow!
Sharon: But I needed to learn how to be a person who was blind, and all of those tools were provided for me, but also the opportunity for upward mobility. And we can talk about that journey because it’s been quite the journey to get out to San Francisco.
Hoby: I’d love to talk about that journey in a second, but you’re celebrating a bit of an anniversary here, right? Because we’re recording live from the 2023 National Industries for the Blind Conference. And as I understand, you were an employee of the year. We’re honoring many employees of the year this year, and you were an employee of the year 19 years ago, you said, right?
Sharon: 19 years ago I attended my very first NIB conference and it’s just kind of been nothing but fun ever since. And I’ve been afforded a lot of opportunities because of NIB and their upward mobility programs.
Hoby: And were you still working on a manufacturing floor when you got that employee of the year nomination?
Sharon: I was. I was a direct labor employee of the year.
Hoby: That’s awesome. What a wonderful thing to come full circle and now be able to support your own employees of the year.
Sharon: That’s right, it’s awesome.
Hoby: It’s amazing.
Sharon: It’s so much fun to watch. And it’s been a little emotional this week because it is 19 years to be able to look back and see what I’ve been given and the opportunities that I’ve been given.
Hoby: That’s amazing. Really, truly inspiring. And one thing we’ve been talking a lot about, and I would like to hear about your journey from the manufacturing floor to the CEO position in San Francisco. But one of the things that we’ve seen as a theme throughout the sort of burgeoning of this podcast and growth of this podcast as we’ve been chatting with people is the trend in the agency world, in the blindness agency world for sincere upward mobility. For people to start at one place and not be granted upward mobility because people feel bad for them, but because they earn it, people rise in these organizations so swiftly. And it’s just really inspiring.
So if you don’t mind sharing a little bit of your story, because a lot has, I’m sure, happened on your journey from working on the manufacturing floor to now sitting as CEO of Lighthouse of San Francisco.
Sharon: Yeah, it really did. I mean, it was really pivotal to start in that manufacturing role. I remember my very first day on the job. I packaged 39 boxes of gloves. But every day I would package a few more and a few more. And as you build those skills, and that’s kind of what it’s all about, you need that skills development. You know, there’s a 70% unemployment rate among working-age blind adults. And a lot of times it’s just there’s not a development of skills that are there.
And that’s one of the things that NIB agencies actually do provide. Not only skills to just work in one job either. We are full businesses. We have commercial partners. We have all kinds of jobs for people within these agencies. And it’s not just providing somebody that one job, but it’s giving them a path that they can move up. And that’s what was given to me, I was given an opportunity. I was allowed to move up. I started off packaging gloves, I moved to the sewing line. Then I started to do computer training, call center work, then public policy.
Hoby: Wow!
Sharon: And then I moved here to DC and worked for NIB as their legislative affairs specialist and then took a VP job in Raleigh, North Carolina. And then I spent my last eight years in Little Rock, Arkansas before coming out to the lovely San Francisco.
Hoby: Wow! What a journey. And what an exciting time to just be able to be an excellent person, someone who people get along with so well, and just see that trend of upward momentum and upward mobility because people saw it in you. You know, they saw this amazing person with a fire in her belly that just wanted to get out there and do it.
Sharon: I just wanted to do something. We’re occupational beings, we’re not meant to just sit at home and do nothing.
Hoby: Well, dare me if I say something inappropriate here, but I think our egos make us want to work as adults, right?
Sharon: That’s right. That’s right. I mean, we kind of need to buy food and pay for our houses too.
Hoby: It’s true.
Sharon: I mean, those are kind of important things. But nobody wants to go to their 20-year high school reunion and say, well, I just sit on the porch all day and don’t do anything. But I mean, look at the jobs, look at the availability of all the jobs. I mean Jeffrey Mittman said the other day that if it wasn’t for the agencies manufacturing the padding in his helmet, that he’d be dead.
Hoby: Right.
Sharon: And the bandages that stopped his bleeding were manufactured by these agencies. So you may not be able to serve in the military as a person who’s blind, but you’re giving to that front line.
Hoby: I love that. I love that. And we’re going to hear from Jeff later as well.
Sharon: And of course, that’s personal to me as well, because I was in the military before going blind.
Hoby: And you saw a lot of these tragedies that happened where people’s lives were saved based on NIB agency products.
Sharon: That’s right.
Hoby: I love that.
Sharon: Just like using the litter that one of the agencies makes, you know, carry people who are injured off the battlefield.
Hoby: Right. If you don’t mind just walking us through a little bit of what Lighthouse for the Blind San Francisco does, from both an agency and sort of training standpoint. And then you guys also do a lot of amazing manufacturing work and manufacturing things that really do help in so many fronts in so many areas. I’d love to just hear straight from you a little bit of a rundown of what Lighthouse does.
Sharon: So, I mean, we’re the typical blindness agency that has all the services, all the rehab services from assistive technology training to Braille and then all the way to employment. So if people want to go to work, they can develop their skills, work on their resumes and then we have partnerships with organizations that you can get placed out into the community.
And then our Sirkin Center which is located in Alameda, we have two lines that we do. One of them is toilet tissue and they are the little packets of toilet tissue that go in the meals ready to eat for the military. And so they start out with like these seven foot rolls of toilet paper that are huge that get cut down into 12 little, tiny sheets. And we spit out like 40 million of those a year.
Hoby: Wow!
Sharon: And then we have our chemical line. And so, we are the only EPA safer choice partner, we’re bio preferred, and we own our own formularies, which is very unique to the agencies. And so we not only just package the chemicals, we make the chemicals as well.
Hoby: Right, and you own the formula.
Sharon: We own the formularies, we do.
Hoby: That’s incredible. But one of the other things that I think is interesting is a lot of… Well, when an NIB agency sells to the federal government based on the assistance that they received from NIB, I think it’s easy to forget that a lot of these agencies, Lighthouse included, have a lot of private commercial partners too.
Sharon: That’s right. And that’s so important. You know, the Javits-Wagner-O’Day or now the AbilityOne® Program, that was started back in 1938 by President Roosevelt. He had identified that veterans returning from war blinded couldn’t find employment. He said, we’re the government and we’ll buy products from agencies that serve people who are blind. And so, this program has been so important and the largest employer of people with blindness and other severe disabilities because in 1971 that act was amended to add people with other severe disabilities.
And so, it’s so important that everybody who’s outside of our organizations understands what the capabilities of people who are blind are. And that’s one of the things that we’re doing, Hoby. Every time you and I walk into some place, we’re selling the capabilities of people who are blind because they’re watching us.
Hoby: Right.
Sharon: And so then we want to be able to walk back in there with one of the people who wants a job to say, hey, we can do this job. We can compete with our sighted peers. And those are the skills that we’re helping to build. And, you know, it’s not always something that you may not want to work on a manufacturing floor, but if you’ve not had a job for a long time and you’re just learning about blindness, I tell you, it changed the trajectory of my life starting off on that manufacturing floor.
Hoby: Wow!
Sharon: I don’t think I’d be sitting in the CEO’s chair today if I didn’t start there.
Hoby: Correct. And that’s a huge nugget of information, folks, is that you have to start somewhere, and you have to give yourself a chance to start somewhere because if you don’t start that journey and then take these incremental steps up as you go and earn the respect and the success that you deserve, it never gets started. You really have to kick that off somewhere.
Sharon: And it’s a safe place to do it, too.
Hoby: And that’s huge.
Sharon: Because you’re going to learn and you’re going to grow.
Hoby: You gave me a perfect segway here to talk a little bit about a lot of our listeners and a lot of the people that we interviewed preparing for this podcast and developing the idea for the Heard & Empowered podcast told us that both blind individuals themselves who were not working and who were getting benefits from the government, social security income, this sort of thing, and also family members of blind folks and folks who are rehabilitation specialists and social workers, and one of the biggest things we heard is that people don’t want to lose their social security income and their government support, even though it doesn’t pay nearly, in most cases, what they would earn working for the agencies.
And I think for you and me, we love hard work and we’re really excited about hard work, and we do it our way. But what would you say to people who really are struggling to… Either they’re having trouble themselves or one of the other things that we found a lot of is that their families push them back because their families don’t want them to not receive benefits and then have to take care of them when their job falls through and all these sorts of things.
So what are your thoughts there? What would you tell, first, the blind person and then their family members? Their mom, dad, daughter, whatever the case may be.
Sharon: It’s so true and we see it all the time, and we talk about the earnings or the cash cliff that people fall off of when they are on benefits. And one of the biggest fears that they have with that is their medical benefits. But these agencies, it’s not just a busy job, these are real jobs with real pay and great benefits. All of the NIB agencies, I mean, we know what they start off at. I mean, for instance, I have people on my manufacturing floor that’s making over $21 an hour at this point in time.
And they have all the benefits. They have three weeks of paid vacation when they first start and they get all the federal holidays. But I mean, that is a real struggle because they’re afraid because they faced failures before and maybe they’ve had a job before that wasn’t accessible and that did fall through. And then they had to fight to get back on those benefits.
And I really do think what the struggles are, but it’s always more lucrative to work. There is a certain amount of dignity that comes along with having a job, but I can understand where the family is, but at the same time you have families that are out there worried about their adult children who are still living with them and that doesn’t have employment because they have no means of taking care of themselves.
We, as agencies, provide that safe space for them. And maybe they only want to start off working part-time.
Hoby: Sure.
Sharon: We can walk through that journey. But one of the things that we’re working on as an industry, and National Industries for the Blind is leading this charge on this because like SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, that’s an earned benefit. We pay taxes into that. And so should there be an earnings cliff or should that just be a benefit that gets paid?
Hoby: Right.
Sharon: And I mean, we know that people who work, guess what? They go from being tax takers to taxpayers.
Hoby: That’s true.
Sharon: And that has an economic impact in the long run.
Hoby: Yeah.
Sharon: And so if we could help people not fall off of that cash cliff and not lose their medical benefits, it’d be so much better. There is the Ticket to Work Program, which a lot of people come in under and they can earn above substantial gainful activity, or their SGA levels, for nine months and then you can figure out what you need. And maybe it’s training that you need to where you can make more money.
Hoby: Yeah.
Sharon: And so there’s a lot of options out there and any of the agencies, any of us would be happy to talk to anybody about how to get to work and not lose everything that you have.
Hoby: That’s amazing. And that’s one of the things that I think we need to really remind folks of, is that there are agencies like Lighthouse for the Blind of San Francisco all over the country in most states that are NIB agencies which have resources and who people should feel totally comfortable and confident reaching out to and leaning into to get the education they need of what they would need to do to come back to work and really see the opportunities that are before them.
This is a very hypothetical question. Maybe hypothetical is the wrong word, but maybe a little more abstract. I want to know from you what it felt like as you moved from floor manufacturer and what sort of the biggest jumps in pride were moving from floor manufacturer to public policy person, to your work with NIB and then all the way up to VP and CEO. How does that pride feel, Sharon?
Sharon: Sometimes it was almost surreal because I didn’t have a Hoby in my corner that gave advice like I was enough, you know? And it was one of those things that it just, I don’t know… There were days that it was unbelievable that these things could be accomplished. And my trajectory shouldn’t be any different because I’m blind.
Hoby: No.
Sharon: But you get to that point because of what society says to you and what you hear from other people that you think, well, I’m just always going to do this. But I wasn’t limited, and I kept on having opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. I participated in the business leaders program that NIB had, which was an upward mobility program. And as those skills developed it was no different than the first time I stepped off the curb as a person who was blind with a white cane in my hand. It was the same thing, and it’s as one success builds on another and that’s what it was. And then it’s physics. It’s the law of physics, a body in motion stays in motion.
Hoby: Exactly.
Sharon: And I tell you, uphill all the way. And you know, we just had that momentum, but it wasn’t just something that was given to me. I had to earn those opportunities because we’re businesses.
Hoby: Right.
Sharon: But I had a lot that was given to me along the way to make me successful. I had mentors along my way. I had training along my way. And I had the opportunity.
Hoby: I think that’s something we have to remind folks of too, is that the work done by the agencies is business. And if the products or services aren’t up to par, the business will not get rehired to perform those services or make those products.
Sharon: That’s right.
Hoby: So we have to be excellent at what we do. And I think there’s a thought sometimes that, oh, we’re just doing really good work by buying from companies that make products or offer services by folks that are blind and visually impaired. But truthfully, we’re businesses and we’re providing real goods and real services that are needed for those opportunities. And I would say what I’m getting at here is that you are a prime example of an NIB agency’s tremendous success story. Going from floor manufacturer to CEO in 13 years. And that’s not very much time when you really think about it.
And my question related to this, if you sort of put everything together and think about it, I mean, people did help you along the way, but you were not given favors, right?
Sharon: No.
Hoby: So you had to work hard.
Sharon: I had to earn them. I had to earn them.
Hoby: Yeah. And how much better does it feel, I mean we touched on this a little bit earlier, but how much better does it feel to earn that success and know that you deserve it rather than just have it handed to you because you’re blind?
Sharon: Boy, I can’t even imagine the concept of that. I mean, because it’s not, that’s just not how life works, right?
Hoby: No, it’s not.
Sharon: And I’m proud that I’ve had these opportunities, and I had the opportunity to earn those opportunities.
Hoby: And you’re in a position now to give people those opportunities.
Sharon: I get to give those opportunities. How much fun is that?
Hoby: Oh my gosh, yeah.
Sharon: And so I tell everybody that my job title is actually “Chair Stacker” at the agency. And that’s because it’s my job to remove obstacles for other people so they can do their job.
Hoby: I love that. I love that so much. You and I have talked in the past about the word impossible and how so many people like to say that they can’t. And when I was interviewing people as we prepared for this show, a lot of people said, “Oh, I could never do that. I could never do chemistry.” I studied chemistry myself. And it’s just this whole thing of, I could never, I could never. And to me, it’s all about mindset.
So if you could comment on these people that say I can’t and I won’t and I shouldn’t. How can we help them change that “can’t” to, “I can,” and “I will,” and “I should”?
Sharon: I think showing them. We just have to show them that they can. And you know, part of that is just breaking down the stereotypes. It’s like I said before, it’s what society has fed people and they believe that. I mean it’s, well, you’ll never be able to do that because you’re blind. And it’s a lot different, I mean, you had a mom who raised you to be a very successful man who’s blind.
Hoby: Yeah.
Sharon: Who just happens to be blind.
Hoby: Just happens to be.
Sharon: Just happens to be blind. She was a teacher, she went to being a TBI.
Hoby: She did.
Sharon: But a lot of people, I mean, blindness is one of our most primitive fears.
Hoby: It is.
Sharon: Fear of darkness, I mean, it goes all the way back to our primordial days because that was an unsafe place to be. And people still don’t get that we can live our lives and have a darn good quality of life.
Hoby: Exactly.
Sharon: And I tell everybody that when people tell you that something’s impossible, do you know what impossible actually spells?
Hoby: What does it spell?
Sharon: I am possible.
Hoby: I love that.
Sharon: And so every one of you out there listening to the podcast, you are possible. And I want you to go around every day saying, “I am possible.” And believe it and rise to the occasion and go out there and live your dreams. There’s so much of the world out there to explore and we want to help you explore it.
Hoby: Gosh, that is really a powerful message. And I could talk to you for hours, and have talked to you for hours before and loved every minute of it, but we’re running up on time. I just have one final question that I really want to ask you. And please feel free to fill in anything else that you want to say that I haven’t asked as well.
But what advice would you give someone who is sort of teetering on the precipice of going out there and getting a job with an agency and thinking about maybe slowing down on their government benefits? What would you tell them?
Sharon: I would tell them to take the leap. It’s a leap of faith, I know. But know that there’s a soft place for you to land at these agencies. And there are so many other benefits that go along with working there. I mean, just think of your network of friends. I mean, I have a family reunion every time I come to an NIB conference because there’s just so many people that you build friendships with through the years. And it’s not just friendships that are there, but it’s friendships with your customers because they appreciate what you’re making for them.
Hoby: I love that. And it creates bonds and it creates trust.
Sharon: It creates a great quality of life, it is what it creates.
Hoby: That’s so wonderful. I want to congratulate you on your amazing success moving from where you started to where you are now. It’s really inspirational for all of us. And congratulations on the work ethic and you earned it. So that’s really incredible.
I know there are going to be listeners out there who want to get in touch and I’m just wondering if it would be okay if we included your email address in the show notes.
Sharon: Absolutely.
Hoby: Thank you so much for that.
Sharon: Look me up on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram.
Hoby: You are very active on social media.
Sharon: I am.
Hoby: You post some good stuff, so that’s phenomenal. Sharon, I want to thank you so much for your time today. This has just been a joy and it’s so inspiring, really, to hear your story.
Sharon: Well, Hoby, I so appreciate being invited. I’m honored to be a part of this and can’t wait to hear everybody else’s stories.
Hoby: This is the NIB Heard & Empowered podcast. And you just listened to Sharon Giovinazzo. Thank you, Sharon.
Sharon: Thanks, Hoby.
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Since 1938, National Industries for the Blind (NIB) has focused on enhancing the opportunities for economic and personal independence of people who are blind, primarily through creating, sustaining, and improving employment. NIB and its network of associated nonprofit agencies are the nation’s largest employer of people who are blind through the manufacture and provision of SKILCRAFT® and many other products and services of the AbilityOne® Program.
For more information about NIB, visit NIB.org.
