
Vanessa P.
Chief of Staff
Vanessa is an experienced leader skilled in program design, strategic thinking, problem solving, research, and building collaboration with a variety of partners and stakeholders. She brings nearly 20 years of experience in conceptualizing, planning, executing, and evaluating programs and services in the education, non-profit, and government sector. She is known for implementing effective operational structures that ensure services run smoothly, are administratively strong, and produce data-driven results. She has a proven ability to implement operational solutions that meet current and future requirements while intentionally right sizing and redirecting organizational focus and personnel. Vanessa has been recognized by her colleagues and former staff as a thoughtful and committed leader who is focused on improving performance outcomes, while motivating and mentoring staff, students, colleagues, and partners from diverse backgrounds.
Vanessa has worked on important, high impact initiatives, projects and programs in Los Angeles, New York City and Tulsa. In her most recent project, Vanessa spearheaded and led a cross-functional team to support the strategic design and implementation of district-wide out of school time programs that leveraged $4 million in ESSER funds to support over 34,000 students and 72 schools with enrichment, mental health, academic, and social emotional learning opportunities in response to COVID learning loss.
Vanessa is a Los Angeles native of Mexican descent. In her free time, you can find her taking adventures with her pitbull, Mateo.
Vanessa is a Doctoral candidate for an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Oklahoma. She holds a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, and Master in Education from The Broad Center. Vanessa completed her undergraduate degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles. Vanessa believes it is important to serve the community, and currently serves as a Mayor’s appointee for the city of Tulsa Hispanic Affairs Commission.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
- Chief of staff
EDUCATION
- Doctoral candidate for an Ed.D., University of Oklahoma
- MPA, Columbia University
- MS, Columbia University
- ME, The Broad Center
- BA, University of California, Los Angeles