MDA Champion: Chris Rosa, Flushing, New York

Chris Rosa shares his professional expertise surrounding higher education for students with disabilities in this edition of The Voice, but many of the practical tips he shares come not only from educational and career training, but his personal life experiences as well. 

Chris Rosa

Rosa, 42, earned a doctorate in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center; his dissertation is on "Disability Rites: The Construction of American Disability Culture."

Prior to his appointment as University Dean for Student Affairs, he served for 11 years as Director of Disability Services at Queens College (CUNY), where he coordinated the accommodations for more than 500 students with disabilities.

Each year since 1997, Rosa has authored chapters advising students with disabilities on how to choose colleges, graduate and professional schools in a published series for the Kaplan Interactive Division of Simon & Schuster.

Rosa has held key advocacy roles on state and national levels. He has served as chairperson of the Subcommittee on Employee Disability Concerns of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. As a member of the New York State Independent Living Council, Rosa is involved in making policies that ensure that state agencies providing services to consumers with disabilities do so in ways that empower these individuals and foster their independence.

Rosa also holds key leadership positions for MDA. He is a member of MDA’s Board of Directors, a position he was elected to in 1997; he is a member of MDA’s National Task Force on Public Awareness and serves as a member of the Task Force’s steering committee; he was named an MDA national vice president in 1994. In 1993, Rosa was profiled on the national broadcast of the MDA Telethon and in 1997, was the recipient of MDA's National Personal Achievement Award.

Rosa’s other activities and passions include coaching basketball for Catholic Youth Organization, teaching at City University, and being a devoted Bruce Springsteen fan having attended dozens concerts over the years.  Rosa has Becker muscular dystrophy, which was diagnosed at age 9.