Ben Smith

Curriculum Advisor

My grandmother, the suffragette, my aunt, the first Catholic teacher to break into an all Protestant school district, and my uncle, a WWII Prisoner Of War prepared me to trot off to Cal Berkeley in 1966 – the Free Speech Movement, Jazz in North Beach, pages and pages of literary criticism, and the Vietnam War. 1970: A PhD in English or a teaching career in Oakland? Well, after thirty-five years, hundreds of students, scores of teachers and plenty of action, I retired. Now: I’m a blind, grandpa activist working for peace and social justice in different corners of the Bay Area. Then, up pops ETI, a dynamic group with a mission that speaks to me. I want to lend my language skills (Spanish), curriculum expertise, political will, networking abilities, and my concern for marginalized blind populations to the mission of ETI.