YOLANDA CASH JACKSON

SHAREHOLDER, BECKER, FORT LAUDERDALE

Florida Trend's 2022 Floridian of the Year continues to work closely with her alma mater, the University of Florida, sharing her expertise about lobbying with law students and raising money for the John Lewis/HBCU Pathway to Law endowed scholarship she helped create for graduates from historically Black colleges and universities. Jackson, a prominent lawyer-lobbyist, grew up in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood and previously chaired the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County's economic development arm. She also led the effort to place a statue of educator, pioneer and activist Mary McLeod Bethune to represent Florida in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. Bethune's is the first image of a Black person in the hall, replacing the image of a confederate general. “A trailblazer only means that there are not many people who have done it before,” she told an interviewer. “But somebody has to do it the first time. I like doing that.”