Professor Robin Morris was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and grew up in Tucker, Georgia. A graduate of Tucker High School, she earned her bachelor’s degree at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. After participating in the Teach for…
Phil Kent was born and raised in Auburn, New York. He relocated to Georgia to attend the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. Following graduation, Kent began a long career as an editorialist and writer at the Augusta Chronicle.…
Nseabasi (Nse) Ufot was born in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States as a child. She is a graduate of Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia Tech, and the University of Dayton School of Law. Ufot practiced corporate law before joining the American…
Max Blau was born in Evanston, Illinois, and grew up on Chicago’s North Side. He is a graduate of Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Illinois), Emory University, and the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Blau began…
Jim Galloway was born in Ohio and grew up near College Park, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and worked as a photographer, writer, and editor at the Red & Black. Galloway interned…
M.V. (Trey) Hood III was raised in Waco, Texas. A political scientist, Hood earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, master’s degree from Baylor University, and a doctorate from Texas Tech University. He was a visiting professor of…
J.A. (Sonny) Dixon was born in Savannah on August 5, 1952. He grew up in Savannah and attended the University of Florida. He served two terms as mayor of the Garden City, Georgia and five terms in the Georgia House of Representatives. Dixon retired…
Maynard Eaton was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in neighboring Orange. He graduated from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) with a bachelor’s degree in mass media arts and Columbia University with a master’s degree in broadcast…
Sam Olens was born on July 8, 1957 in Miami, Florida, and grew up in South New Jersey. He graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international politics from American University in Washington D.C. and earned a J.D. from Emory University…
Christopher M. (Chris) Carr was born on February 8, 1972 in Lansing, Michigan. He relocated to Georgia with his family in 1978. Carr is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business and School of Law. Carr worked for Georgia…
Jerry Gonzalez was born and raised in Laredo, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M in 1995 and an MPA from Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in 2005. He joined the Mexican…
Tim Cairl was born and raised in rural, central Michigan. He relocated to Georgia with his family as a child and attended high school in Douglasville, Georgia. He earned a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Liberty University in 1997 and an…
Robert A. (Bob) Irvin was born on September 9, 1948 and grew up in North Fulton County. He attended Roswell High School and graduated from the Lovett School in Atlanta. Irvin earned a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William &…
Maxine Shapiro Goldstein was born on August 25, 1926 in Augusta, Georgia. She attended the Junior College of Augusta (now Augusta University) in 1945 and the University of Georgia in 1946. She married Jacob Louis Goldstein in 1947. Goldstein began…
Jeff DiSantis was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in various locations around the country while his father served in the military. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a J.D. from the Emory University School of Law.…
Leroy H. (Roy) Simkins, Jr. was born in Augusta, Georgia, and grew up in Beech Island, South Carolina. He is a graduate of Richmond Academy in Augusta and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. After serving two years in the U.S. Army,…
Joseph B. (Joe) Wilkinson was born September 3, 1946 in Atlanta. Wilkinson is a graduate of North Fulton County High School and the University of Georgia. Wilkinson has held various roles with the Coca-Cola Company. He also worked as a White House…
Charles Hayslett was born and raised in Columbus, Mississippi. He relocated to Atlanta with his family in 1965. Hayslett is a graduate Briarcliff High School and the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism. Upon graduation, he joined the…
Lea Agnew was born in Atlanta and grew up in southwest Atlanta. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism. Agnew became active in politics during the 1968 presidential elections, and she eventually…
Stuart Levenson was born and educated in Savannah, Georgia. He attended Armstrong College before working for the Social Security Administration for 36 years. Levenson talks about growing up visually impaired, emphasizing the changing role of…
Vashaun Jones was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He describes being blind or visually impaired throughout his life. He talks about his career, emphasizing the importance of failure to achieving success.
Rita Harris was born in Good Hope, Georgia. She worked in the school system assisting children with disabilities before she became visually impaired due to retinitis pigmentosa. Harris describes adjusting to life as a visually impaired person. A…
Empish Thomas grew up sighted before losing her vision after college to uveitis, a condition that causes inflammation in the back of the eye near the retina. Thomas describes navigating the workforce while blind, discussing her careers in human…
Jarrett McNutt served in the army during World War II before becoming a minister and working for the Clinical Pastoral Care Organization. He talks about his family history and his career as a minister.
Bridgette Suttle was born in New Jersey, but she grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She became legally blind as an adult due to complications from type 2 diabetes. Suttle describes managing her diabetes, having to have her foot amputated due diabetes, and…
John McCarty is an autistic, non-reliable speaker with impaired vision. In this interview, Joan McCarty reads her son, John McCarty’s, account of his struggle with communication before learning the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), which enabled him to…
Chris Vandeford became blind as an adult due to diabetic retinopathy. He talks about losing his vision, going through vocational rehabilitation, and becoming involved in his community, both through his work at the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation…
Brian Mosely became blind, lost his sense of smell, and got epilepsy in an accident as an adult. Mosely describes how assistive technology has helped him retain his independence, mentioning the use of the Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reader…
Candace Rogers was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) which caused her to become legally blind and have issues with mobility. Rogers describes fighting for disability benefits, purchasing a house, and encouraging others people who have MS.
Daryl Rootledge is a vocational rehabilitation therapist and minister. He was born with aniridia, an illness that impacts the development of the eye during birth. Rootledge describes navigating the educational system and raising his daughter as a…
Anna Trotman was born in Montgomery, Alabama and experienced numerous health problems as a child that caused her to become visually impaired. In this interview, Trotman talks about her education and career as a braille instructor at various…
Alina Garcia Ravelo was born in Cuba and attended the University of Havana, graduating with a degree in industrial engineering. She eventually moved to the U.S. and currently lives in Bainbridge, Georgia, where she works at Georgia Industries for the…
Gaylon Tootle was born in Georgia and attended the Georgia Academy for the Blind, before attending the University of Georgia. After graduation, he worked for the U.S. Army at Fort Stewart and the Moody Air Force Base. Presently, Tootle works at the…
Luis Narimatsu was born in the Panama Canal Zone. He began losing his vision in college as a symptom of glaucoma. After his diagnosis, Narimatsu eventually found work in the 94th Signal Company as a telephone operator. Afterward, Naritmatsu moved to…
Robert Woodward grew up in Decatur County, Georgia. He worked in a variety of jobs, including as an ambulance inspector, food services inspector, and as an employee of Georgia Industries for the Blind (GIB). After retirement, Woordward opened his own…
Cornelius Butler was born in Dawsonville, Georgia and currently lives in Bainbridge, Georgia. At a young age, Butler was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, which has caused progressive loss in sight throughout his life and will result in eventual…
Verna Miller Smith was born in 1946. She grew up on a family farm off Brooklyn road in Athens, Georgia. In this interview, she discusses her family history and describes the Brooklyn neighborhood which was historically African American. She…
Reverend James Williams is the Church Historian for Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. He grew up in El Paso, Texas before moving to Elbert County, Georgia at age ten. In this interview, he focuses on his education. He compares his integrated school in…
Reverend James Williams is the Church Historian for Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. He grew up in El Paso, Texas before moving to Elbert County, Georgia at age ten. In this follow-up interview, he focuses on his time at the University of Georgia. He…
Brenda Lopez Romero was born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and immigrated to Georgia with her parents while she was a young child. As a first generation scholar, Romero recounts her experiences dealing with racism within public schools, university, and the…
Sam Zamarripa was born in Fort Benning to a Mexican immigrant and an American national. As his father was in the military, Zamarripa’s family moved often, but he considers himself a Southerner. In this interview, Zamarripa discusses his…
Jeffrey Tapia is the former Executive Director of the Latin American Association (LAA) as well as the former Director of Hispanic Services at Catholic Social Services. Tapia has dedicated her life to serving the Latino community through outreach. In…
This interview was recorded remotely. Maritza Soto Keen is an associate director and senior public service faculty at the Fanning Institute at the University of Georgia. Keen has also spent many years leading the Latin American Association as the…
Isabel Gonzalez Whitaker was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to Cuban refugees before they settled in Atlanta. Throughout her career, Whitaker has worked various jobs in journalism, with one of her earliest positions being booker and producer of…
Yiceth Caicedo was born in Colombia and fled to Ecuador with her husband before she arrived in the United States in spring 2017 with her two young children. She had been in college studying sociology before she had to leave Colombia. Her husband…
Chou Ly left Cambodia during the reign of Pol Pot and lived as a refugee in Thailand before moving to the United States in the early 80s. She and her family lived at Jubilee Partners before moving to Lilburn, Georgia. Chou returned to Jubilee as a…
Robbie Buller was one of the first volunteers at Jubilee Partners and became a partner soon after. He speaks of his Mennonite upbringing and desire to live in Christian community, as well as his work at Jubilee. He discusses his marriage to Chou Ly…
Nasrin Rouhani and her family left Iran because they are members of the Baha'i faith. They arrived in Georgia in August 1984. In this interview, she speaks about the process of reestablishing her professional career and proving her nursing…
Nasrin Rouhani and her family left Iran because they are members of the Baha'i faith. They arrived in Georgia in August 1984. In this interview, she speaks about the process of reestablishing her professional career and proving her nursing…
Bennie Gantt was born in Comer, Georgia in 1937. His parents were sharecroppers for most of his life, but they also ran a small restaurant in Comer in the late 1940s. Gantt attended the Comer Colored School through 11th grade. Madison County built…
Nancy MacNair was born in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in 1938 and moved to Athens in 1975 when her husband got a job as a professor of social work at the University of Georgia. In this interview, she discusses her work as a sexual health educator during…
Sam Denney was born in Athens in 1989 and is an aerial dance instructor at Canopy Studios. In this interview she discusses the development of her lesbian identity, the difficulties she has faced as a Queer person, and the Queer community in Athens.…
JW Chin was born in Atlanta but considers themself an Athens native. Currently, JW is living in Athens and attending the University of Georgia to obtain a Master’s degree in social work. In this interview they discuss the formation of their…
Content Warning: This interview includes references to mental distress and suicide.Adrya Stembridge was born in 1970 and grew up in Athens. In this interview, she discusses the fraught process of discovering her transgender identity and the…
Christiana Henry was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, before moving to Atlanta, and finally settling in Athens in 2015. In this interview she discusses her experiences as a trans woman and finding Queer community in Athens through the art and music…
James Barbour was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and moved to Atlanta when he was a child. He came to Athens to study business at the University of Georgia, and remains in Athens today. He is a drag performer and a founding member of the drag troupe,…
