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.