Vanessa is the Project Manager at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems where she works on the the implementation of the USDA NextGen grant designed to train the next generation of food policy leaders.
Vanessa's purpose is to design experiences that empower historically marginalized communities to live fulfilling lives. She is passionate about guiding people to find alignment with their truest selves and take action on everything that will bring them more joy, love, gratification, and peace. She strives to be intentional about how experiences are designed to optimize the experience of the audience.
Vanessa was born in California, but she was raised in her mother’s native Pacific island of Guam until the age of 12. She then lived in Tucson, Arizona. After high school, she moved to the Phoenix area to attend ASU where she fell in love with the ASU college experience because of the vast array of student opportunities and ASU's values of inclusion, innovation, and changemaking. Vanessa graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors in May 2015 with a Bachelors of Arts in Design Management, a Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Transformation Communication, and a certificate in Knowledge Entrepreneurship Innovation.
Upon graduating college, she worked at a start-up tech/insurance company before transitioning to serve as a Teach For America corps member and 8th Grade English Teacher while earning her Masters in Secondary Education (English). Afterwards, she returned to the university that birthed her passions as a Success Coach working with online students to realize their dreams while serving as a leader on varying committees related to workplace culture, professional development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Vanessa then transitioned to her role as Program Manager, Venture Development with the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute where she was responsible for the leadership of strategic planning and collaborative support for all Venture Devils program track communities such as MedTech, Retail Devils, Social Impact, Creative Spark, and Venture Devils PLUS.
Vanessa is the Founder of Mindfulness With Ness, which provides group meditation-journaling-conversation sessions, personal development programming, and individual coaching for women of color. Vanessa also serves as a Mindfulness Instructor for Mindfulness First where she guides K-12 educators on how to incorporate mindfulness into their classroom curriculums and as an ASU Online Orientation Facilitator.