Vanessa Wilkins

Vanessa is an expert on sparking and scaling innovation in schools everywhere so that all kids can be prepared for their future. She consults with funders and organizations focused on innovation in education and youth development.

Most recently, Vanessa served as North America Community Impact Director at Nike, leading a statewide education initiative in Oregon, managing key national and local partnerships, and engaging Nike leaders to innovate in education. Her work re(launching) and implementing the Nike School Innovation Fund was recently documented in a Harvard case used to teach shared value and scaling impact in a joint program between the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School.

Prior to Nike, Vanessa co-founded Partners in Scale, a consulting firm to mission-driven organizations, where she worked with innovative education models in developing countries, conducted a study on charter school funding in Oregon, and advised global NGO’s on organizational development.

Previously, she served as VP for Worldwide Human Resources at EF Education and Managing Director at Friends of the Children, where she now serves on the National Board of Directors. She also serves on the board of Construct Foundation. Early in her career, Vanessa worked in Venezuela for Empresas Mendoza supporting global financial restructuring and liquidating the group’s trade finance bank in NYC.

Vanessa received a BS from Boston University and an MBA from Harvard.