DeAnna Pursai holds a Master’s in Education Policy Analysis in the School of Education from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an undergraduate degree in Elementary and Special Education from Purdue University. DeAnna has named as a CNN Hero in April, 2022. She was the recipient of the 2023 Boy Scouts of America Silicon Valley Character Award, and she was named a 2023 Women Making Herstory recipient in March, 2023 by CA State Senator Dave Cortese. She was named a Golden State Warriors Impact Warrior in March of 2024. She’s a founding member of the Profound national disability leadership organization.  She has been named an Architect of Change on the Maria Shriver blog in 2015. DeAnna is active Rotarian in the Bay area with her founding club of Rotary Club of San Jose and her second club of the Saratoga Rotary Club who has welcomed her as a co-member. DeAnna as the Chair of the Rotary Neurodivergent Youth Empowerment Fund and serves as the Rotary District 5170 Rotary Climate Action Council Chair as well as the Vice Chai for the ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group) for the BigWest national region.  She also serves as the Rotary mentor to the Rotaract Club at San Jose State University. She proudly served 6 years as a board member of Christmas in the Park and has recently rejoined their board. She is big sister to Angel Ellenberger, who happens to have Down syndrome and is an exquisite actress, entertainer and comedian. One of DeAnna’s bucket list items is to give a TED Talk on the subject of how to innovatively cast a wider higher education net to include adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who historically have not had access to higher education. She’s going to realize this dream in October, 2025 in Helsinki, Finland when she’ll be giving a TEDx at TEDxViikki with the theme of the conference being Amplifying Silent Voices.