Lawrence, Kansas. She earned her BFA in Textile Design and a graduate teaching certificate in Visual Art Education from the University of Kansas. With twenty-three years of teaching experience in high and middle school visual art and design, Vanessa has worked in the United States and internationally in Thailand, Korea, and East Africa. Navigating these diverse cultural landscapes with her disability, Spina Bifida, she currently utilizes a wheelchair. Now based in Shanghai, she teaches high school art and design at an international school.