about
The story of Vconsulting founder, Vanessa A. Becker
Vanessa has over twenty years of experience in the non-profit and government industries. The breadth of Vanessa's cross-sector experience allows her to engage and collaborate across the private, public and social sectors successfully, providing a very unique consulting experience. Her experience spans from grassroots nonprofits, executive government administration and successful corporate business. Vanessa appreciates the needs, motivations and languages in all three sectors, ensuring that the impact of her work consistently exceeds expectations.
Highlights of Vanessa's experience include twelve years as Executive Director of a stable and thriving non-profit in rural Oregon and a recent position as Interim Deputy Administrator of a large county health and social services department. Some of her most notable successes include:
- an appointment, by the Attorney General, to chair a Department of Justice board
- winning a public election as a trustee of Umpqua Community College
- being nominated and selected as a fellow of the American Leadership Forum
- chairing several non-profit boards around the state
- Governor-appointed, state senate confirmed to Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission
Vanessa‛s leadership experience and devotion to Oregon started early. Growing up in farmland west of Portland, Oregon helped her to develop a strong appreciation for community and the rural lifestyle. Her passion for improving groups and the lives of her neighbors has driven Vanessa into a life-long passion for leading groups, from 4-H as a child, to college student body president and then into non-profit executive leadership. Her leadership expertise and success is only outmatched by her enthusiasm for helping to better the lives of those around her. Vanessa is often quoted “I do this work because I want tomorrow to be better than today.”
Her academic career began at Linfield College and then took her to Ann Arbor Michigan where she pursued her graduate degree in Public Health at the University of Michigan. While in Michigan, Vanessa worked and volunteered with several projects to improve some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Detroit. Her experience in Detroit provided her with a strong academic foundation for community work while also expanding on her rural roots with experience in urban settings. She worked on several projects funded by large national non-profits, the Kellogg Foundation and the CDC. Vanessa's adventures in Detroit ranged from teaching asthma management skills to elementary school children to large-scale community academic partnership projects aimed at improving quality of life in inner city Detroit.
Team V wins again! Vanessa and her 14-year old Dutch Warmblood, Veron (a.k.a Super V) at a recent international competition in California, 2016.
She returned to the west coast and landed in Roseburg, Oregon in 1998, accepting a Program Director position at a regional non-profit focusing on rural health. She immediately jumped in to community work, volunteering to help groups improve their communities all over the State of Oregon. She developed many networks in Salem and Washington D.C., while representing and advocating for the communities with which she worked. Appointments to several public advisory and non-profit boards quickly followed. While working with these groups, Vanessa became a grant reviewer for many funding bodies, including state and private funds, the United Way and she helped distribute federal stimulus and recovery act funds.
Vanessa’s role as a leader was tested in October 2015, as she responded to the deadliest mass shooting in State history. As a volunteer board member for the college, she worked with community leaders to coordinate the institution and community wide trauma informed response, assisted the college leadership team in emergency operations and was the primary media spokesperson for the first 72 hours. Vanessa continues to work with the college and community to work on compassionate and trauma informed recovery efforts. She also speaks regularly about lessons learned, with the hope of improving system response to mass tragedy and trauma.
Team V wins State and Regional Titles in Dressage, September 2015
Vanessa has developed content expertise in many areas, including high-impact non-profit strategy, organization development, change management, coalition development and rural community development. A Peer-reviewed journal has published her work, and Vanessa also presents regularly on topics related to public and private non-profit administration nationally as well as in her home state of Oregon. She has taught as Adjunct faculty at her alma mater, Linfield College and blogged on generational issues in the non-profit and public sector. Her blog received recognition by the New York Times in May of 2010.
Vanessa leads with charisma, compassion and courage. She deftly applies her experience and academic preparation to every business decision and seizes new opportunities for growth and development, both personally and organizationally.
Never one to balk at a new challenge, Vanessa started her own consulting firm in 2007. She built her consulting practice with the hope and intention to use her training, expertise and talents to improve the efficacy and impact of the organizations she works with. V Consulting currently has clients from multiple sectors including for-profit corporations, nonprofit organizations, foundations and government entities. The broad variety of work enables cross sector integration of ideas and concepts, resulting in higher impact and a unique consulting experience.
Outside of her work and various volunteer positions, Vanessa enjoys training and competing in the equestrian sport of Dressage, is a voracious foodie, loves to travel and looks forward to the adventures that every day presents.
V Consulting Associates
V Consulting offers access to additional associates with robust and diverse backgrounds. These partners allow V Consulting to provide adaptable and flexible services based on specific needs of the client. Associates have rich backgrounds in the public and private sector, including corporate and foundation experience. V Consulting is based in Oregon, but has had successful clients across the U.S. as well as international projects.
Associate Highlights
Carolyn Kramer, M.P.H
Carolyn is an experienced public health and education leader, offering more than 15 years of experience assessing, developing, managing and evaluating community-based public health and education programs in Washington and rural Oregon. Carolyn founded and leads the Washington Learning Connection Summit, a yearly conference in its eighth year, and was recently awarded the School Nurse Advocate of the Year Award from the School Nurses of Washington for her exceptional work creating policies and programs that improve youth health and learning outcomes. Her academic preparation includes a Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington and Bachelors in Sociology and Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. Carolyn has recently been working with V Consulting to provide research and data analysis for Community Health Assessments in Douglas, Curry, Josephine and Jackson Counties in Southern Oregon. Carolyn is the owner of her own consulting firm, CK Consulting, based in Issaquah Washington.
Susan Prock, M.A.
Susan provides valuable administrative support and program coordination to V Consulting & Associates. Susan has many years of experience coordinating programs and managing offices for nonprofits and small business. When not traveling, Susan lives and works in Corvallis with her partner Gene and several four legged kids.
Summer Stickney, graphic designer
Summer began her career in the dark early days of the internet while attending UC Berkeley, where she earned her B.A. in Medieval History. Summer designs for both print and the internet with a keen focus on simple and elegant communication of information. She works for a variety of clients in several countries, but V Consulting is her favorite.