Jenaya Smith is a customer service representative for Neighborhood Health, an insurance company offering Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial health insurance plans. She studied human services at Bridgewater State College, later working for Blue Cross Blue Shield and facilitated several contracts through the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired of New York.
Tara Chavez lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and works as a quality assurance tester with the US Forest Service. Having lost her sight at the age of three, she feels that blindness is all she knows and identifies with. She earned a Bachelor in linguistics from the University of New Mexico and participated in an on-site training program with the Forest Service in 2012. Tara is a mother of two and a guide dog user who currently serves as the second vice president of the New Mexico affiliate of National Federation for the Blind.
Kane Brolin is a financial planner and owner of Brolin Wealth Management. He received a Bachelor of Science in speech communication at Iowa University and a Master's in management at Northwestern University. Blind since birth due to retinopathy of prematurity, Kane helps families with special needs achieve their goals through ethical financing. In his personal life, with his wife Danika, he adopts and fosters special-needs children, and he's actively involved with outreach programs at his church.
Stephen, originally from Maine, attended Perkins School for the Blind and graduated from Rhode Island College with BAs in computer science and English literature. His studies focused on creative, technical, and analytical writing as well as systems analysis and C++ programming. He later started Speech Systems for the Blind, a business which creates software for the blind and visually impaired.
Sammi Grant is an adjunct professor and dialect coach who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. She earned a Bachelor's in Fine Arts in Acting from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master's in Fine Arts with Distinction in Vocal Studies from the Royal Center School of Speech and Drama. Currently coaching at Illinois Wesleyan University and DePaul University, she has also coached at the University of Cincinnati and has been doing freelance work since 2012.
Vision Towards Success (formerly known as Trades Win) is a virtual 14-week paid internship program for blind and low vision teens and young adults. Job seekers engage in research and professional outreach as they and produce podcasts and written profiles that highlight blind individuals who are thriving in the workforce. Interns learn directly from blind and low vision professionals across a wide range of industries while developing skills in project management, teamwork, research, outreach, interviewing and media production.
John Bramblitt is a blind artist living in Denton Texas whose art has been sold over 120 countries. He has appeared internationally in print, TV, and radio and has designed artwork for magazine covers major film productions. He has received the Most Inspirational Video of 2008 from YouTube and three Presidential Service Awards for his innovative workshops. He currently works as an accessibility consultant for museums.
Polus has developed a unique partnership with the coffee industry to address victim assistance for coffee-growing communities in Colombia. Since 2008, the Polus Center has administered the Coffeelands Trust, a public-private partnership developed through a grant from PM/WRA, which engages the international coffee industry in victim assistance for coffee communities. The Coffeelands Trust has helped hundreds of coffee farmers who have been impacted by armed conflict with support from major coffee companies and the Federation Nacional De Cafeteros De Colombia (FNC).
The Heroes for Advocacy project aims to provide the best care and assistance to the disabled population of the Colombian National Police, especially to those officers who have been injured in the line of duty during eradication, interdiction, and rural security operations. With this initiative, the Polus Center seeks to improve the Colombian National Police’s capacity to support these heroes in their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
