Throughout her career, Annette Jacobi has demonstrated her desire to provide legal needs to abused and deprived children. Her service to children earned her the 2009 OBA Trailblazer Award, which she received at the association?s Annual Meeting.

Through her involvement with the OBA Young Lawyers Division Children and the Law Committee, which she chaired at one time, Ms. Jacobi has spear-headed the effort to accomplish certain goals, including generating public interest in juvenile representation, educating lawyers in juvenile issues and increasing the number of lawyers serving as child advocates in and out of the courtroom.

As a result of these efforts, 35 lawyers and judges toured three of Oklahoma City?s juvenile facilities to promote programs such as Positive Tomorrows, the Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center and the Child Abuse Response and Evaluation Center (CARE). Ms. Jacobi led the way for tours to be organized in Tulsa and Stillwater, and within weeks she began working with the OBA/CLE department to provide free all-day seminars in Oklahoma City and Tulsa to lawyers and judges on issues involving effective legal representation of abused and deprived children.

With her encouragement and inspiration, Oklahoma Lawyers for Children was founded to team qualified pro bono lawyers with children in the juvenile division of the Oklahoma County District Court.

She currently serves as chief of the Family Support & Prevention Service at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, vice president on the National Alliance of Children?s Trust and Prevention Funds Board of Directors, president of the Board of Directors for Catholic Charities of the Oklahoma City Diocese and a Master of the William J. Holloway American Inn of Court and is the past chair of the Oklahoma Child Death Review Board.