Marty Wyngaarden Krauss, professor emerita, was recently appointed interim dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The position opened when the previous dean, Lisa M. Lynch, was appointed to serve as provost-elect of Brandeis. Krauss is an expert in intellectual disabilities and disability policy issues, specializing in the families of people with disabilities. Brandeis is currently conducting a search to find a permanent candidate for the dean position.
Krauss earned her Ph.D. from Heller in 1981, after receiving her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. She served as the provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Brandeis from 2003 to 2011. In addition to her other work at Heller, Krauss was the director of the Starr Center for Mental Retardation and was on the board of directors for the Special Olympics between 1992 and 2002. Her work has been published in academic journals including The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and The International Review of Research on Mental Retardation.
“I am thrilled to be re-joining my colleagues in advancing the mission of the Heller School. And I am very much looking forward to meeting the students at the Heller School who come from all over the world,” Krauss wrote in an email to The Hoot.
Krauss wrote that she will continue her work with intellectual disabilities as dean of Heller.
“The research and teaching being done through the Starr Center and the Lurie Institute are obviously of great interest to me,” said Krauss. “I look forward to greater involvement with all the research and teaching being done throughout the Heller School.”
Krauss wants Brandeis undergraduates to know that “the Heller School is deeply involved in the educational mission of the whole university. Undergraduates now have strong opportunities to be involved with our faculty both in the classroom and in its research activities. It is an exciting, innovative and mission driven part of Brandeis.”
Krauss is a distinguished member of the Brandeis faculty, having earned several awards and honors. In addition to other awards, she received the Christian Pueschel Memorial Research Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2000 and served as the chair of the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Mental Retardation from 1993 to 1999. Krauss was also awarded the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation’s Future Leaders Award in 1990. At Heller’s 55th anniversary celebration in September, Krauss was awarded the Heller Alumni Service Award.
Heller focuses on the social nature of the world’s dilemmas and creating positive social change. The school houses the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, as well as the Nathan and Toby Starr Center on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Heller currently serves 536 students, 30 percent of whom are international.
Krauss will officially begin her term as interim dean of the Heller School on Monday, Nov. 3.
