As a Directing Attorney at Homebase, Vanessa leads the Criminal Legal Strategy Initiative, where she works at the national, state, and local levels to identify and scale best and promising strategies to address the housing needs of people impacted by the criminal legal system through intersectional lenses of racial justice, housing, and homelessness. Working together with the CLSI team, she conceptualize, plans, and facilitates dynamic action planning processes, capacity building, data analyses, local initiatives, and convenings across the criminal legal and homeless systems.
Prior to joining Homebase, Vanessa served as the Executive Director for a legal services organization focused on easing reentry and eliminating barriers for people with criminal records, a public defender, Chief of Staff to a New Orleans Councilmember, the Legislative & Advocacy Director at ACLU of Nevada, and an attorney and law clinic staffer representing low-wage and immigrant workers in wage, labor, construction, discrimination, and immigration matters. She also implemented the 2000 Census in Northern California, has engaged in safety planning with survivors of intimate partner abuse, and supported laid-off worker career transitions for King County (WA).
Vanessa is a Massachusetts native currently residing in Louisiana, and holds a BA in Anthropology and Spanish Language & Literature from Whitman College and a Juris Doctor from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.