About Me
Hi I’m Vanessa …
I partner with organizations, teams, and leaders to build the conditions where meaningful change can take root, grow, and thrive.
I’m a strategist, leadership coach, and organizational partner, and my connection to this work is deeply personal.
I grew up in Southeast Los Angeles (SELA), in a predominantly Brown community shaped by working-class and immigrant families. I am a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. My parents grew up with very little and began working at young ages to help support their families. From them, I learned early the importance of community, resourcefulness, and education.
Growing up as an advocate and translator for my Spanish-speaking parents also taught me how to listen, navigate systems, ask questions, and stand alongside the people I care about. My own journey taught me something else: determination can take you far, but it doesn't create opportunity on its own—especially for those of us who grow up without the privilege, access, and connections that can make opportunities easier to reach. Access to information, resources, and relationships can open possibilities that determination alone cannot. And sometimes, having someone open a door can change the direction of your life.
A chance encounter with a college access program helped put me on a path to UCLA, where I became a first-generation college student. Getting there was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and changed the trajectory of my future. Finding my place once I got there was much harder. I went from a community where nearly everyone looked like me to spaces where very few people did. After struggling my first year, I found community and support and began working with high school students from communities like mine. I wanted young people to have access to opportunities, multiple pathways for their futures, and the support to navigate spaces that weren't always designed with them in mind.
That experience became the beginning of a career that has now spanned more than 20 years.
I was trained as an organizer, so strategy has always been part of how I understand change. My career has taken me from grassroots student organizing, education, youth development, and community engagement to nonprofit leadership, public systems, organizational strategy, operations, and strategic advising. I've worked alongside young people and families, organizers, educators, nonprofit and public-sector leaders, leadership teams, and boards—from grassroots and community-based organizations to large public systems across the West Coast, East Coast, and the South.
Working across communities, organizations, and systems has allowed me to understand change from multiple vantage points. I've seen the power of a clear vision, thoughtful strategy, strong systems, and intentional implementation. I've also seen what gets lost when decisions are made without the voices and perspectives of the people who will bring them to life and those they are intended to serve.
What I Believe
I believe meaningful change is created with people, not for them. It requires intentional action, relationships rooted in care, shared ownership, and the knowledge and perspectives of those who experience, shape, and carry that change forward.
I also believe there is another way to lead.
Leadership doesn't have to be defined by urgency, hierarchy, individual achievement, and productivity at all costs. We can imagine and practice ways of leading that make room for relationships, reflection, learning, care, and our humanity. We can slow down when slowing down helps us move forward with greater intention. We can hold a vision and set meaningful goals while remaining responsive as people, circumstances, and needs change. And we can think about leadership not only as the development of an individual, but also as the conditions we create for the collective to grow and thrive.
That includes investing in people. We can't expect people to arrive with every skill they will ever need or ask them to continually perform without giving them the support to grow. People need time, coaching, learning, honest conversations, meaningful feedback, resources, and opportunities to practice and lead.
For me, strong organizations aren't simply more productive or efficient. They build systems that serve people and purpose, invest in the people doing the work, and create the conditions for people and communities to belong, contribute, grow, and lead. Ultimately, stronger leadership and organizations aren't the end goal—they are a means of creating meaningful, lasting impact for the people and communities they exist to serve.
Why RootedVP
I originally created Rooted in Vision and Purpose as a place where I could fully use my own gifts.
At the time, I was working within an organization where I felt underused and where opportunities for my own growth repeatedly failed to materialize. As a Chicana/Mexicana and one of very few Latinas in organizational leadership, I also experienced the biases that can shape who is seen as an expert, whose leadership is recognized, and who is given opportunities to grow.
RootedVP created a space where I could show up more authentically, trust my expertise, and choose work and partnerships aligned with my values. What began as a side project eventually grew into a practice that brings together the different parts of my experience—people and systems, strategy and implementation, organizational leadership, and the life lessons and ancestral wisdom that have shaped me.
Today, I partner with leaders and organizations working toward meaningful change, helping bridge the space between vision and implementation while strengthening the leadership, relationships, and systems that make change sustainable and community-centered.
My approach isn't about prescribing one right way to lead or handing an organization a plan created from the outside. I believe we can imagine and build new ways of leading and working together — ways that are responsive to our identities, communities, people, and context while still moving meaningful work forward.
A Little More About Me
I earned a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership through the Broad Residency in Urban Education. I also hold bachelor's degrees in History and Chicana/o Studies, with a minor in Urban Planning, from UCLA.
Outside of work, you'll often find me exploring California with my dog, Mateo, practicing yoga, journaling, traveling, or bringing family and friends together over a home-cooked meal. These parts of my life aren't entirely separate from how I think about leadership. I believe in slowing down, tending to our individual and family well-being, and making time to nurture ourselves as intentionally as we care for our work and communities.
The family, community, and experiences that raised me continue to anchor how I show up today. For me, leadership begins with relationships, trust, belonging, and service — and care begins with ourselves and extends outward to the collective.