Vanessa joined the School of Humanities team in August 2025. She is the Executive Assistant to the Dean of Humanities, Kathleen Canning. In this role she provides administrative support to the Dean to facilitate the initiatives of the school.

Vanessa has over 25 years of administrative experience supporting senior executives in the business sector. Most recently, before coming to Rice, she worked internationally as an English teacher in Thailand, Hungary and Spain. She enjoys cross-cultural engagement and loves to travel. To date she has traveled to 18 countries and lived in six.