BEST Together Podcast BEST Together (Blind Early Services TN)

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.