Kristin Smedley
President & Co-Founder, Curing Retinal Blindness Foundation (CRB1 LCA/RP Patient Organization), USA
Biography
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 really 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 and middle 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 (www.crb1.org), 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 2017 Kristin published 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 inspirational and humorous style leaves audiences of all sizes wanting to hear more.