Vanessa Torres (she/her) is the Associate Director of Social Justice at YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Vanessa is constantly inspired by the resilience and beauty within her community. She is the daughter of a single young mom and the eldest of four children. Vanessa believes that the role she played in her Chicanx family has significantly shaped her leadership abilities and unique management style. After having two children in 2014, she began her career in the nonprofit sector specializing in creating culturally relevant programming for Latinx clients and providing organizational infrastructure for direct service staff. In 2019, Vanessa started her work with YWCA as a Program Manager helping to grow programs across Santa Clara County as well as recruitment and retention of a sexual assault and domestic violence prevention specialist team. Since then, Vanessa has immersed herself in all things prevention education participating in domestic violence prevention panels, social media awareness raising campaigns, and presentations and workshops including Domestic Violence 101, Sexual Assault 101, Child Abuse Prevention, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Risk Reduction & Prevention Strategies, and Prison Rape Elimination Act for Youth. Last year, she was promoted to the role of Associate Director and looks forward to continuing her professional development and journey in the field specifically in learning more about public policy and advocacy in the nonprofit sector. Vanessa is a mother of four young children and wife of a special education teacher. Her favorite forms of self-care are reading fiction, running outdoors, and hiking with her family.