Amanda Kraus

Originally from the suburbs of New York City, Dr. Amanda Kraus has lived in Tucson, AZ and worked at the University of Arizona for more than twenty years. Dr. Kraus currently serves as Assistant Vice President for Campus Life and the University’s Chief Accessibility Officer and Executive Director of its Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC is an international model of progressive service delivery, uniquely positioned to approach campus access systemically. 

As Associate Professor of Practice in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the UA, Dr. Kraus instructs courses on student services and disability in higher education. Borrowing from disability studies, Dr. Kraus studies disability identity, disability dynamics in the student veteran community, and disability-related biases and microaggressions. She challenges the dominant deficit or tragedy narrative on disability and promotes models and tools to increase access and equity and ultimately reframe concepts of difference in higher education.

Dr. Kraus is Immediate Past President for the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) Board of Directors and has had the privilege of working with institutions and organizations such as, Duke, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). She also has extensive international experience. Dr. Kraus has traveled twice to Singapore, was the featured speaker at Quebec’s association for disabled students in higher education in Montréal, CA – the first plenary talk to be delivered in English in the organization’s twenty-year history, was an invited speaker for the US-Japan Collaboration on Disability and Self-Advocacy in higher Education, was invited by the US Department of State to join a delegation convened to engage in dialogue on disability access in education and employment in Beijing, China and again in Washington, D.C., and spent two weeks in Nairobi, Kenya this past summer consulting on universal design at United States International University of Africa.

Outside of work, Dr. Kraus is an avid wheelchair tennis player and has served on the board of director for the United States Tennis Association Southern Arizona District to grow opportunities for disabled players and increase the national visibility of wheelchair tennis. She is currently on the board of Visit Tucson where she helps position Tucson as an inclusive and accessible destination. Dr. Kraus is passionate about social justice and access; this is reflected in her work on campus, teaching and community involvement.

Dr. Kraus completed her B.A. at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA and earned her M.A. and Ph. D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona.