Her Story
About Gwen
Gwen Botting is the Executive Director of Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind, a nonprofit organization in Ionia, Michigan that provides summer camp experiences and life skills training for children and young adults who are blind or visually impaired. Since stepping into the role in 2012, she has worked to strengthen and expand programs that foster independence, confidence, and hands-on learning. Her focus has been on ensuring that children have access to meaningful, tactile, and experiential education in areas such as cooking, gardening, outdoor exploration, and daily living skills that are often difficult to fully address in traditional educational settings.
Gwen’s professional path has been both varied and deeply personal. She initially pursued a goal of attending medical school, but ultimately shifted direction after the MCAT experience led her to explore other opportunities. She began her career as a technical writer in the medical diagnostics field, later relocating to Michigan where she balanced early family life with a range of entrepreneurial and practical work. After becoming a parent, her perspective on visual impairment became profoundly shaped by her son, Greg, who was born prematurely and is blind. Drawing on both family history and lived experience, she chose to approach blindness with a focus on capability and independence, influenced by contrasting examples of relatives with vision loss one who saw blindness as limiting, and another who lived independently and resourcefully despite it.
That perspective became the foundation for her lifelong advocacy and leadership. Gwen spent 12 years as President of Michigan Parents of Children with Visual Impairments, where she helped grow the organization significantly and expand its support network for families and educators. She later took on leadership of Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind at a time when the organization was at risk of closing, working to stabilize and revitalize its mission. Her commitment is rooted in a belief that children who are blind or visually impaired must be given real, hands-on opportunities to experience the world directly understanding nature, food systems, and their environment through tactile learning that cannot be replaced by theory alone.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Gwen
01What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important thing to me is that the person in charge has empathy, understanding, and the willingness to go where others are going and let them lead. I think learning to let other people take on responsibilities is crucial to their development and crucial to my sense of self-centeredness - I can't wear all the hats anymore. I used to do that, and it's just not okay. Giving people who are blind or low vision the opportunities to be leaders, to make decisions, to be their own chief is essential. I really want people to understand that if you have integrity, if you have drive, if you want to learn how to do something and you're going to listen to what other people say, then you will have much better success in life. As long as you have love and empathy for other people and can understand their situation, you will go far. Just being accepted as who they were created to be is just the most important thing. I want the whole world to understand that just because you're different doesn't mean you're wrong.
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