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BEST, Blind Early Services TN, is a nonprofit organization co-founded by two moms of young boys who are blind. BEST provides family support, early intervention and advocacy services for families and providers of children who are blind or low vision. In each episode we will interview parents, providers and those with lived experiences in the blind/low vision community. We want to educate, empower, encourage and equip you with all the tools you need to ensure the BEST start for your child!
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Flip For Function offers therapeutic gymnastics and occupational therapy. Their mission is to unlock potential by strengthening minds, bodies and confidence of children impacted by physical, cognitive and mental challenges, through exercise & fitness so they may experience a sense of belonging and achievement and push past limits in all areas of their lives.Chasity McMillan, the founder of Flip For Function, is an Occupational Therapist, earning her Doctorate of Occupational Therapy from Belmont University. She is a USA gymnastics member and has coached all ages, levels and abilities up to Pre-Team. She managed a large gym club in California for 10 years, where she zeroed in on her passion for teaching others about the benefits of gymnastics, how to engage with children of all abilities and needs and make gymnastics accessible for all. In CA, she developed a gymnastics program in partnership with a local OT clinic, involving adapting and modifying skills as well as training coaches on best practices for inclusion. Now, she has brought inclusive gymnastics paired with OT to Middle Tennessee with the founding of Flip For Function.Listen to Alison and Chasity discuss the importance of Occupational Therapy, inclusion in the recreational space, and accessibility for all.
Elizabeth Saum is a Nashville native. She went to the University of Tennessee and is now a financial analyst for a healthcare company. She is also in charge of Foundation for the Delta Gamma Nashville Alumni group. Service for Sight is very important to her as she has a vision impairment herself. She says she has received so much support from her sisters in Delta Gamma and hopes to raise more awareness for those who are also visually impaired. Emma Hawes is a healthcare sales professional living in Nashville, TN. Upon moving to Nashville in 2017, Hawes has been active with the Nashville Area Delta Gamma Alumnae chapter. There she has held roles within Panhellenic, Programming, and most recently President. She was awarded the Hope award from Delta Gamma Fraternity on a national level due to her service. Outside of Delta Gamma she’s a provisional advisor in Junior League of Nashville.Elizabeth and Emma join us in this episode of the BEST Together podcast to discuss Delta Gamma's official philanthropic mission, Service for Sight, and how that mission is followed on a national and state level.
In 2007, Judy Byrd got involved in the blind community by volunteering at the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2010, she agreed to help start a beep baseball team. For the next seven years, she was the manager of the Atlanta Eclipse Beep Baseball Team. While practicing with the new team, she noticed that all the beep baseball players were older teens and adults, wondering what team sport the younger kids who were visually impaired were playing. To fill this gap, Judy created Beep Kickball. Fourteen years later, over 700 beep kickballs have been sold around the country, in Canada and Australia. Since retiring in 2012, she has been heavily involved in promoting Camp Abilities. For most children in the United States, participating in sports and spending time with peers is a given. But for children who are visually impaired, these are not givens. Camp Abilities, a worldwide, week-long camp for children with blindness or vision impairment provides the environment, the support and the expectation that all children can participate on the ball field, the tennis courts or anywhere! Camp Abilities is an educational sports camp, but for children who are visually impaired, it’s one week where sports, recreation and making new friends IS a given.
In this month’s episode of BEST Together, Alison sat down with Judy to discuss Beep Kickball and all things Camp Abilities.
In this episode we talk with two of Tennessee's most respected professionals in the field of deafblindness. We discuss state deafblind projects, the impacts of dual sensory loss and the new CVI Clinic at Vanderbilt Eye Institute. You won't want to miss it!
Suzanne Dinwiddie, M.Ed., COMS, CTVI, CEIM is a certified teacher of students who are blind/visually impaired (CTVI), an orientation and mobility
instructor (COMS), an early childhood special education specialist, special education, and elementary education. Currently, Suzanne serves as the educational consultant for the CVI Clinic at Vanderbilt Eye Institute, providing technical assistance and assisting families, school
systems, and teachers concerning the unique learning strategies for students with cerebral/cortical visual impairments (CVI) and adjunct professor for Vanderbilt University’s master’s program. Previously, Suzanne worked as the educational consultant for the Tennessee DeafBlind Project (TNDB), a federal grant associated with Vanderbilt’s Children Hospital in the Division of Developmental Pediatrics.
Danna Conn has served as the Project oordinator for the Tennessee DeafBlind Project for over ten years now. She provides coordination of the daily activities of the grant and the continued collaboration with agencies and individuals across the state to address system and child outcomes through evidence-based technical assistance, training, and consultation. She maintains the state's deafblind census, and she works to increase public awareness around deafblindness. She also speaks at many regional and national conferences and talks on topics all related to dual sensory loss. She previously worked as an early intervention specialist in North Carolina and in Italy.
Yvonne Neubert is a graduate of East Tennessee State University and has been a member of the National Federation of the Blind since 2012. In 2014, she completed the Partners in Policymaking state training. A trip to Washington, DC to take part in an NFB seminar sparked her involvement in legislative affairs. It was activism that prompted her to not only join the NFB but to become active in the organization. She now serves on the NFB’s board of directors, is President of the senior's division and is chair of Tennessee’s legislative committee. Yvonne is a leader and credits her team with successfully gaining support from a Tennessee U.S. congress member who became the first, in Tennessee, to co-sponsor a bill presented by the NFB. She has also volunteered at SPARK, a local tech training center for the disabled community and has worked as a broadcast journalist. Her hobbies are reading, songwriting and storytelling.
Stacy sat down with Yvonne recently for an episode of the BEST Together podcast. Listen as they discuss the power of advocacy and activism, specifically within the community of the blind.
Campbell Rutherford is a rising junior studying Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Blind since birth, she is passionate about ensuring that blind individuals can access the resources necessary for them to succeed in school, the workplace, and life in general, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Before college, Campbell worked as both a website accessibility tester and an assistive technology instructor, specializing in teaching students to access and present mathematics materials, and she continues to take any opportunity she can to tell her story and educate others about the importance of assistive technology in the daily lives of people like her. In her free time, Campbell enjoys playing piano, reading, writing, and spending time with her family, friends, and six rescue cats.
Liza Rutherford is a choreographer from Dandridge, TN, and is the homeschool mom of two girls, Campbell and Harris, and wife to Mike. After a lengthy journey to get an accurate diagnosis for Campbell, suddenly the Rutherfords were immersed in the deep waters of acquiring services and an education for a braille reader in a rural Appalachian community with limited resources. After 3 years of Montessori School and 3 years of public school, they settled on homeschooling Campbell for grades 5 through 12. It was a fantastic 9 years of exploring, networking, and learning as a family, and ultimately led to Campbell now thriving in Cambridge, MA as an applied mathematics major at Harvard. In her free time, Liza enjoys reading, knitting, cooking, going to the theatre, and back-porch-sitting with her family in the hills of East Tennessee.
Liza and Campbell sat down with us recently to share their journey from diagnosis and early intervention to combatting low expectations in schools to their journey all the way to Harvard!
Leslie Jones is the Executive Director of the FMDG (Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg) Music School in New York City, a music school serving students of all ages with vision loss. Leslie holds a DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and an MM from the University of North Texas. She has served on the faculties of Ithaca College and Montana State University. A versatile musician herself, she enjoys playing chamber music and performs as a jazz pianist. She has been instrumental in developing an accessible music technology program within the Music School while expanding community outreach and visibility by establishing collaborations and partnerships with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 92NY School of Music and Harkness Dance Center, National Dance Institute, among others. Leslie has served on the New York and Montana State Arts Councils, and has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Performing Arts Division at Rowan University.
Christie Elliott, COMS, CATIS
Christie Elliott graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2015 with a Master of Arts in Rehabilitation of the Blind and began working as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist at the STAR Center, serving blind and visually impaired individuals from birth to end of life.
She earned a Graduate Certificate in Assistive Technology from Western Michigan University in 2022. Christie holds two ACVREP certifications: Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS) and Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CATIS).
Christie has worked at the STAR Center since 2009, previously serving as a Job Skills Instructor for 6 years, teaching job skills to adults with disabilities.
Christie enjoys helping individuals who are blind or visually impaired to figure out what tools can help them realize their full potential in achieving independence for their daily lives.
Our podcast guest this month, Christina Clift, graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and attended the University of Memphis for graduate school. Christina has worked at the Memphis Center for Independent Living as the Consumer Advocate since 2003. She has served as chair of the State Rehabilitation Council of Tennessee, and the Memphis Advisory Council for Citizens with Disabilities. Christina is also a founding board member of the TriState Adaptive Sports Association, and is a proud member of the National Federation of the Blind. Christina is a fierce advocate for those living with blindness and knows firsthand that access to assistive technology and other supports opens doors, eliminates barriers, and gives independence to those with disabilities. Listen this month as we discuss what independent living really means.
Caroline Aly is a Nashville-based educator with a background in non-profit leadership, private tutoring, and teaching in the exceptional education space. Caroline says that after continually observing inequity, profound limitations, and a lack of support for parents and/or caregivers of exceptional learners within the education community at large, she decided to launch her business, Carehack, to serve as a safe bridge across major gaps in a system often under-prepared to provide for the needs of exceptional learners. Caroline's experience and expertise leads the team at Carehack, a growing community and safe haven for parents of exceptional children to ask questions, receive resources and advocacy support, consult with experts, and implement personalized behavior systems at home.
Mae Lane-Karnas is a 14-year-old diagnosed with CVI who loves braille, math, and art. Due to CVI, Mae has a host of visual challenges that cause her to function at the level of legal blindness, even though her visual acuities are typical. In the past year, Mae has co-presented to the Principals of Schools for the Blind and the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind (AER) on use of Nemeth code for middle school students with CVI. Mae co-organizes an ongoing CVI discussion group at Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute and serves on the board of the National Federation of the Blind of Vermont. Katie Lane-Karnas is Mae’s mother and the primary homeschooling parent to her two daughters in rural Vermont. When Mae was diagnosed with CVI two years ago, Katie began facilitating Mae’s learning in braille, Nemeth code, AT, O&M, and the ECC. Katie authored a paper, “A Case Study on CVI, Reading, and Braille,” that has been accepted for publication in 2024 by the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness on her family’s learnings from Mae’s experiences. Both Katie and Mae join us on this month’s episode of the BEST Together podcast to share their lived experiences with CVI.
Dr. Grace Ambrose-Zaken is the President and CEO of a nonprofit organization called Safe Toddles. She is a recently retired Professor of Special Education at Hunter College in New York where she taught Orientation and Mobility Specialists for over 25 years. And finally, she is the creator of a pediatric belt cane made to provide children who are blind or visually impaired a solution for walking independently and safely. In this month’s episode of BEST Together we chat with Dr. Ambrose-Zaken about the field of orientation and mobility, research and philosophies around cane use in young children, and challenges facing the field.
Stacey Chambers is a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI) living in Texas. She is also the founder of The E.C.C. and me, an LLC and website that offers a monthly newsletter, trainings, optional membership program, and free resources all pertaining to the Expanded Core Curriculum, the additional curriculum of nine areas that are taught to, or explored with, students who have vision impairments or are blind. "The E.C.C. & Me partners with teachers and families to make assessment and teaching E.C.C. skills collaborative, practical, and fun for all learners with a visual impairment."
Kristin Smedley is the best selling author of Thriving Blind: Stories of Real People Succeeding Without Sight and Brilliantly Resilient: Reset, Rise and Reveal Your Brilliance. A recognized expert in the blindness and rare disease communities, Kristin won the highly regarded Champion of Hope Award and was named an Ambassador for the National Organization of Rare Disorders. Kristin is a popular, in demand speaker who has been invited to share her message internationally.
As CEO of a global patient organization, she coordinated legislation (H.R. #625) that became the first in US history to be submitted in Braille. Kristin spoke at the FDA to help achieve the first ever FDA approved gene therapy to treat an inherited retinal disease in the United States. Her TEDx Talk, book and international summit change perceptions of blindness, and sparked a global movement, Thriving Blind Academy, that is solving the unemployment, literacy, and financial crisis in the blind community.
Rachel Bennett is an Assistant Director at the CVI Center at Perkins, where she leads CVINow.org and parent advocacy and support. As parent to Henry, who has CVI and other disabilities, she knows the duality that comes with being a disability parent—feeling overwhelming love and, at the same time, grief and pain. In 2020, Rachel completed UMass Boston’s CVI Certificate program. Before joining Perkins, Rachel was a special educator and secondary instructional specialist in Maryland. Rachel joins us for this month’s podcast conversation to discuss her perspective both as parent of a child with a visual disability and advocate for other families of children diagnosed with Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment.
Dr. Catherine Smyth has more than 30 years of experience in the field of early intervention and preschool education for children with vision impairments. She is now the Director of Research at Anchor Center For Blind Children, a private, non-profit agency serving young children with visual impairments in Colorado. Anchor provides exceptional, high-quality early intervention; special education; developmental assessment and therapy (occupational, speech-language among others); and supportive family engagement and coaching for blind children during their most formative years of development: birth to age five. As the director of research, Dr. Smyth has worked on studies around such important topics as mealtime routines in early intervention for infants and toddlers with visual impairment, concept and tactile development for preschoolers, and newborn visual screening. Her most recent project has been a collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children's NICU and Dr. Robert King of Children's Eye Physicians on the NAVEG Project which seeks to establish a reliable, evidence-based Cortical/Cerebral Vision Impairment (CVI) screening protocol for newborns and infants. Dr. Smyth also prepares graduate students in online classes at Lindenwood University and the University of Utah. In this episode we discuss how Dr. Smyth ended up in the field of vision impairment, what her various roles in the field have been and taught her, all about Anchor Center and what she's excited to be working on now.
Dr. Kirk Adams is the Managing Director of Innovative Impact, LLC, a consulting company aimed at accelerating inclusion of people with disabilities into the workforce. Dr. Adams is also the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and a longtime champion of people who are blind or visually impaired. Dr. Adams frequently serves as a keynote speaker at conferences across the country, spreading his commitment to creating a more inclusive, accessible world for Americans with vision loss. He has consulted with top leadership at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other high profile tech-oriented companies to discuss topics ranging from product and digital accessibility to civil and disability rights. Having lost his own vision at age 5, in our latest podcast episode, Dr. Adams shares his personal story and helps to shine a light on the importance of braille.
Our other podcast guest, Daniel Lubiner, is a 25-year veteran teacher of students with disabilities and a teacher of the arts for blind and low-vision students. He founded a nonprofit organization, The TouchPad Pro Foundation, with a mission to distribute The BrailleDoodle, an inexpensive braille learning device and a tactile Science, Math, and Art tool. It allows someone to write and create and feel as they go. In this episode, Daniel describes the BrailleDoodle and how he plans to get one into the hands of braille and tactile learners across the world.
Victoria Watts is a disability rights activist, entrepreneur and mother. When her youngest son, Cyrus, was born visually impaired, Victoria had just launched her own product line, VictoriaLand Beauty. After realizing that those with blindness or vision impairments have no way of easily identifying consumer product packaging, she launched the CyR.U.S. System of Raised Universal Symbols, a proprietary tactile recognition system comprised of a set of raised trademarked symbols, making packaging accessible with a simple touch. Recently, Victoria launched her newest invention, Touch Tags, which are categorized by product type and can be placed on any product at home. Victoria is on a mission to make accessible packaging the norm rather than the exception and we could not be more supportive of her mission.
In this month's episode of the BEST Together Podcast, we sat down with Kelsey Fernandez, Regional Manager, Puppy Raising Services and Katie Perez, Manager, Children and Teen Programs from Southeastern Guide Dogs. In our conversation we discuss the process of training a guide dog, fostering a guide dog puppy, dog programs for children as young as 5 years old and etiquette for interacting with guide dogs in public among so much more!
Sam Seavy is the host of a popular You Tube Channel called the Blind Life that highlights and reviews accessible products, new technologies and apps made for the blind community. Sam is himself legally blind due to a vision impairment diagnosis called Stargardt disease which causes one to progressively lose their central vision. Since he started his You Tube channel in 2013, Sam has gained more than 49,000 subscribers and over 6 million views. Listen to our latest episode of the BEST Together podcast where we talk to Sam about his diagnosis, life growing up, what led him to create the Blind Life and of course, exciting new developments in accessible technology for the blind community.
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