Dani Lucchese

 Dani Lucchese, M.A.,  (they/them) is a disabled, non-binary and queer doctoral student in higher education and graduate assistant at the Disability Cultural Center (DCC) at the University of Arizona. Their research focuses on higher education access for disabled students. They hold two masters degrees. The first in disability studies from the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Professional Studies (June 2016). Their second masters is in sociology with a minor in design studies from the New School (May 2020). They received their bachelors degree from Wagner College in sociology with a double minor in journalism and english literature (2014). 
           In addition to holding a graduate assistantship at the University of Arizona’s DCC, they are also adjunct faculty at CUNY Lehman College where they teach courses for the school’s disability studies minor. Prior to their work at Lehman College, they have taught disability studies courses at CUNY School of Professional Studies, CUNY College of Staten Island and William Paterson University. 
           They also have a history of disabled student activism. While they were a graduate student at the CUNY School of Professional Studies, they served as a delegate for the CUNY Coalition for Studies with Disabilities (CCSD). During their time with CCSD, they advocated on the City and State levels for funding for numerous access needs for disabled students. Furthermore, they also served as a faculty representative on the CUNY School of Professional Studies’s Disability and Access Coalition (DAC), mentoring disabled students and working with other departments in the school to ensure event access. As an undergraduate student, they co-founded and served as the first president of Exceeding the Expectation (ETE), Wagner College’s first student club dedicated to disability education and activism on campus.