Vanessa Luna

Co-Founder and Chief Program Officer, ImmSchools

New York City

Vanessa Luna is the Co-Founder and Chief Program Officer of ImmSchools, an immigrant led nonprofit organization that partners with educators and schools to support immigrant and undocumented students and families. Growing up undocumented and later as a DACAmented teacher in Los Angeles and NYC, she realized the high need to provide greater supports for the immigrant community in schools across the country. Vanessa holds a Bachelors in History from Binghamton University and a MA in Urban Education and Policy from Loyola Marymount University. She was awarded the Urban Education Student Researcher of the Year for her master thesis titled "The Fear of Deportation: The Effects of the Threat of Deportation and Mexican Youth ’s Views of their Community." She has served as a founding member of Teach For America DACA Advisory board , was a 2018 Camelback Ventures Fellow and a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow. In 2019, she was selected as Forbes 30 under 30 in Education for her work at ImmSchools. She is inspired by the resilience of her parents and the immigrant and undocumented community to fight for educational equity and justice. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.