Vanessa is a global development practitioner with 25 years of experience across industries in leadership development, diversity and inclusion. She is the inaugural Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Children’s Aid and previously served as the inaugural Senior Director of DEI and Belonging at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Prior to this role, Vanessa led the Inclusive Leadership Practice enterprise wide at Citi. In this unique global role, she partnered with colleagues in Learning, Talent and Diversity to assess development needs, curate, and create solutions with the goal of developing inclusive leaders. She also led the firm’s global flagship senior women development program.

She has led and developed teams internationally, created and facilitated leadership courses in North, South, Central America, Europe, Southeast Asia and North Africa. She offers thought leadership, advisory and mentorship across sectors in Spanish, French and English, and serves on several not-for-profit boards. She grew up in Haiti, holds a PhD ABD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, a MS in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco, a BS in Business Administration, with specializations in Industrial Management and Human Resources Management from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. She also holds several leadership certifications from Cornell University, Harvard University and the University of Cambridge.