Kristin Smedley is a Speaker, Author, and NonProfit Founder/CEO. Her fun-loving spirit and energetic personality originally guided her life in the direction of a career in teaching. Kristin planned to be Teacher of the Year. But fate had other plans, and Kristin found herself shockingly dealt a double dose of darkness. Her two sons were each diagnosed with a rare blindness at four months of age.
As Kristin found and equipped her boys with the resources to help them thrive, they not only took on the world, but changed Kristin’s perception of blindness. She has dedicated her life to doing the same for millions of others that are given a blindness diagnosis.
In 2011, Kristin launched a mission to fund research and resources for children living with rare eye disease. In less than eight years, the Curing Retinal Blindness Foundation has raised over a million dollars and achieved the first legislation in US history to be submitted in Braille—legislation that advocates for better resources for blind and visually impaired Americans. Kristin testified at the FDA on behalf of the first gene therapy for an inherited disease, Luxturna, and she was named the Pennsylvania Ambassador for the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
In 2019 Kristin published her first book, Thriving Blind: Stories of Real People Succeeding Without Sight. The book achieved #1 New Release and Best Seller’s List on Amazon. The book and her TEDx Talk have been combined into a program for parents and educators to change the journey for blind children.
Kristin is known for her constant collaborations and partnerships to drive an entire field to progress. Her enthusiasm is contagious and her impact extraordinary. Kristin is the 2019 recipient of the Global Genes Champion of Hope Award and has been voted the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Power Person of Bucks County, PA.
Kristin Smedley
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