DeAnna Pursai

DeAnna Pursai is a local educator from the Bay Area who co-founded College of Adaptive Arts, which provides an equitable, lifelong collegiate experience to adults with special needs who historically have not had access to college education. DeAnna co-founded College of Adaptive Arts in 2009 after seeing her own sister with Down syndrome, Angel, who is also with us here tonight, sidelined from traditional educational opportunities after aging out of public post-secondary education at age 22. DeAnna and Angel received national attention in 2022 being a CNN Hero focusing on Angel’s story of her lifelong quest for better educational opportunities. CAA offers 70+ adaptive college classes each semester within 10 different schools of instruction, both in person at West Valley College in Saratoga and online. It serves 230 adult students with disabilities here in the Bay Area, and across the country, and most recently, securing its first international lifelong learner from Lagos, Nigeria! The school recently launched a workforce development program for adults with disabilities can become paid apprentices & future employees as CAA Instructors, Associate professors, and college receptionists. CAA’s vision is to Transform Perception of disability and to partner with every campus of higher learning around the world to expand college education for adults who historically have not had access.