power of perception speaker Kristin Smedley

Kristin Smedley, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania is an award winning non-profit leader, TEDx speaker, and author - ¬ but she never planned on any of that. Kristin did plan to be a great third grade teacher, however her personal path to greatness took an unexpected turn when two of her three children were diagnosed as blind. She had to learn the tools of blindness and build a team of experts that would help her navigate this path that she had not been trained for. Kristin’s two blind sons are now thriving as gifted high school students, elected student council officials, baseball championship winners, International Braille competition finalists, and social butterflies. In 2011 Kristin founded the Curing Retinal Blindness Foundation, the only patient organization in the world for her sons’ blindness, CRB1 LCA/RP. Kristin has led the CRBF to raise over $1 Million, introduced the first ever legislation in the United States in Braille, and has moved rare eye diseases from rarely talked about to being discussed in key circles worldwide. In 2016 Kristin di a TEDx talk in New York City regarding how her blind sons completely changed her perception of blindness. In 2017 Kristin will publish her first book, Thriving Blind: Stories of Success Without Sight. Kristin enjoys speaking about her journey and pointing out where she can find the fun in fundamentally challenging situations life delivers. Kristin’s mantra is: Life is funny… sort of!