Bosses for Babies

How This Boss Makes an Impact for Children in Florida

Girls Inc. of Greater Miami is a small organization, still forming its policies and creating internal processes. However, CEO Virginia Akar has worked hard to create a family-friendly culture that signals to staff that family leave and support are important values to the organization.

About a year ago, one of Girls Inc. of Greater Miami’s top leadership team members approached Virginia with a plan for how she would manage starting a family sometime in the future while maintaining her role in the organization, which included a hybrid work schedule, family leave, and family support policies. Virginia is proud of the fact that, despite not yet having concrete policies in place regarding family leave, this team member felt comfortable enough to initiate that conversation. As they continue to grow, Virginia and Girls Inc. will incorporate family-focused practices and policies to ensure they continue to attract and retain the best talent for their mission. 

Bio

Virginia M. Akar, Esq. is the founding CEO of Girls Inc. of Greater Miami. As an advocate for educational and gender equality, she works to ensure that girls in underserved communities have access to support systems, resources, and information that will lead to positive academic, health, and social outcomes. Virginia’s early work as a Miami-Dade County prosecutor working in the juvenile division set the foundation for her advocacy work on behalf of young girls. She spent five years as a litigator, then transitioned to being a full-time stay-at-home mom to her three young children, a role she considers to be, by far, the most important she’s ever had.

In 2015, when her children were young adults, Virginia, surprised by the energy she still had, decided to resume her legal  career. She returned to law school to earn a Master of Laws in Intercultural Human Rights, where she discovered that the combination of all her lived experiences were pointing her in the direction of working to empower young girls from underserved communities. She developed a comprehensive after school program rooted in whole-girl development to help girls challenge stereotypes and overcome financial, social, and gender barriers, ensuring that not only are their voices heard, but that their ideas and dreams have a real path toward fulfillment. The program she developed now serves more than three hundred girls annually across five after school, one full time summer, and two in-school programs. She intends to continue growing these programs throughout Miami, expanding both their reach and impact. Virginia lives in Miami where she and her husband of thirty-one years raised their now adult children.