Vanessa Peña

Vanessa Peña is an Education Policy Analyst at the Latino Policy Forum. She has a background in K-12 and higher education policy. She possesses a keen ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships across different stakeholders for the goal of presenting sustainable educational policy change. After working in Wisconsin for almost a decade, she is excited for the opportunity to give back to her home state of Illinois and continue to push for sustainable educational change for Latinos and English Learners. 

Vanessa is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a minor in Educational Policy Studies. She received her Master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and double majored in Education and Sociology from Beloit College, where she obtained her B.A. and was also a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.