Karen Pettus is a member of the Coordinator & Director Services team at Grand River Solutions. Karen provides expert consulting services to support the ADA/504 team in her work with institutions of higher education and K-12 environments. Her work includes providing ADA/504 consultation and coordination services across higher education and K–12 environments, facilitating staff development and training, providing guidance on recent policy and procedure development, assessing offices for compliance, continuing improvement efforts, and using data in decision making. 

Karen brings over 30 years of experience and expertise in compliance and best practices in creating more inclusive student life environments. She served as the director of student disability resource centers at public and private four-year institutions and the technical college system. During Karen’s teaching career she focused on integrating students with disabilities into all aspects of a school’s curriculum rather than segregating students into separate classrooms and programs. Her desire to see students included in all aspects of life led her to disability services at the University of South Carolina, where she provided education and training for faculty and staff on the importance of providing appropriate accommodations that promote inclusion for college students in all aspects of university life. Karen focused on program assessment, continuous improvement efforts, and use of data in decision making to lead schools’ more inclusive student life environments.     

Karen served on numerous campus committees geared toward student success and retention, including a strategic planning committee, CARE teams, the South Carolina Technical College Disability Services Committee, and the SACS accreditation committee on diversity and inclusion. She chaired the Student Veteran’s Committee and the Disability Affairs Committee. She served on the advisory board for the rehabilitation counseling master’s degree program and the advisory board for the South Carolina Department of Education, Office of Exceptional Children for 10 years. Karen was a member of the South Carolina Department of Education External Review Team for seven years. She conducted several external reviews for colleges and universities in the southeast United States.  

Karen was the co-principal investigator for a grant to begin the Carolina LIFE program for students with intellectual disabilities on campus and a career training grant for students with disabilities from the South Carolina Governor’s office.  She won the Student Affairs Diversity Award at the University of South Carolina in 2020. Karen served as an Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) mentor, providing leadership and support to new professionals in the field. She was named an AHEAD Research Fellow and was selected for an AHEAD Evidence Based Practice Award (2020). 

Karen has conducted numerous presentations, pre-conference workshops, and webinars for AHEAD and other organizations. She also co-authored “Accessible tailgating: An examination of ADA requirements and implications associated with tailgating activities” (Gillentine, Grady, Miller, Pettus, 2016) in the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport. 

Karen is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a B. S. in Special Education. She completed a master’s degree in adult education and Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research from the University of South Carolina.