Vanessa T. (IN A NUTSHELL)

Ever since she was born at a young age, Vanessa was drawn to the field of engineering and obsessed with playing with Legos and breaking things to rebuild. Coming into college, she naturally gravitated towards engineering because of her love for building and designing things (and to get her parents off her butt about medical school). However, it wasn’t until one of her first year engineering professors told her that engineers have saved more lives than doctors, that she realized she was doing exactly what she was meant to be doing. Vanessa’s mission as a mentor is to support her students academically and socially in order to help them find the path they want to pursue.

Hailing from Bentonville, Arkansas (the headquarters of Walmart!), Vanessa is a recent graduate of Duke University where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering (biomechanics focused, math minor, and certificate in Global Development Engineering) and a Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering (certificates in Medical Technology Design and Innovation & Entrepreneurship). At Duke, she was an undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Design Fellow and graduate Design Health Fellow, working closely with physicians at Duke University Medical Center to discover pressing needs in healthcare and create solutions at the intersection of engineering and medicine. In addition, Vanessa served as a teaching assistant for several undergraduate and graduate engineering courses and has facilitated the learning of over 400 students throughout her time at Duke. She is deeply passionate about supporting STEM education and spent her free time mentoring local middle school girls interested in STEM and engaging with the Society of Women Engineers and Biomedical Engineering Society.

When she’s not wiring circuits, coding, or making CAD models, you can find Vanessa watching basketball, listening to music, reading, or eating.