smitty was born and raised in Northcentral Washington, mostly in a library, with heritage tracing back through Oklahoma to Mississippi and the Choctaw Nation as well as Irish and Latinx ancestry. They started teaching art as a teenager and have been teaching ever since. From basic programming on an old commodore to building their first computer in 1998 and started coding in html, smitty has always been creating with tech. Now they stay more on the design side but have created and maintained many websites, front and back end. Additionally, smitty has over twenty year facilitation and grassroots organizing and has spent the last fifteen years involved in research and qualitative data. Their extensive background in design, analyzing qualitative user data, and facilitating group conversations amalgamate to smitty having the particular skillset to facilitate this project. More about smitty: linktr.ee/smittybuckler