Vanessa Wilkins

Vanessa is an expert on sparking and scaling innovation in education so that all kids can be prepared for the future. She speaks globally about innovation in education, consults with funders and nonprofits, and serves as an Expert-in-Residence at Harvard Innovation Lab.

Previously, Vanessa served as North America Community Impact Director at Nike, leading a statewide education initiative in Oregon, managing key partnerships, and engaging Nike leaders to innovate in education. Her work on 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 the consultancy Partners in Scale (now Impact Giving Advisors), served as VP for Worldwide Human Resources at EF Education, and was 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, Oregon Community Foundation’s Leadership Council, and Danish startup Raido. Early in her career, Vanessa worked in Venezuela for Empresas Mendoza on a global financial restructuring and then liquidated the group’s trade finance bank in NYC.
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Vanessa received a BS from Boston University and an MBA from Harvard.

Future School Lab Website
Harvard Innovation Lab
​What US Schools Can Learn From Finland's Approach to Education in Stanford Social Innovation Review
The Nike School Innovation Fund: Scaling for Impact in Oregon Public Schools - Harvard Case Study