Vanessa is an award-winning innovator, activist, mother, and strategic advisor for startup organizations. Known throughout healthcare policy circles, she leveraged her expertise outside of government to structure private public partnerships that created better access, more affordable, and more informed healthcare solutions for vulnerable populations. She is an Angel Investor, President of a nonprofit board Founders and Funders of Color, and a Board Advisor to Georgetown University Graduate School of Health.

Currently, she leads innovation investments on behalf of the California Healthcare Foundation, leveraging the endowment to support diverse founders addressing healthcare needs throughout the low-income population of California.

As a first generation Mexican-American immigrant, raised in Texas, she set out to utilize every professional position across her career to both innovate through collaborations, and extend pathways for others. Vanessa graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst College. In addition, she earned Master’s Degrees from the University of Texas at Dallas and Georgetown University School of Nursing. She is a mother of three boys and stays active in their acting and music activities.