Vanessa has been involved with in non-profit animal welfare via various roles in foster care management, veterinary medicine, veterinary outreach, community cat management and providing accessible pet resources throughout SF Bay Area communities. Starting at East Bay SPCA, she led the shelter medicine and foster care support team, then spearheaded the veterinary outreach initiative at a non-profit/municipal shelter through multi-county veterinary financial assistance programs and mobile veterinary outreach programs. Most recently, Vanessa has focused on scaling accessible veterinary care through strategic planning and co-founding a non-profit mobile veterinary clinic operating in under-resourced communities throughout San Francisco and Oakland.
Currently the Co-Sheltering Collaborative Administrator for the non-profit organization, My Dog is My Home, Vanessa combines her passion for animal welfare with drive to collaborate at an organizational level to support healthy communities that keep families together.
Outside of her career, Vanessa enjoys playing ice hockey, gardening and spending time with her pets. She and her husband, Lucas, are guardians to three cats and two dogs, all rescues from her close work with shelters.