Vanessa Glynn-Linaris has worked as a public servant for the past decade and previously owned and managed a technical consulting firm, focusing on project management, contracts, writing grants and proposals, and producing deliverables. She currently resides in southern California. She is originally from Philly, where she received her bachelor’s in fine arts in 1998, worked in daycare, customer service, and taught art in inner city Philadelphia. During that time, she witnessed challenges that Black kids faced in Philadelphia that she did not previously understand and is passionate about improving societal systems by supporting The Civil Conversations Project behind the scenes as a technical advisor and trouble-shooter.

She received her Master’s in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in 2007 from Penn State and has worked in the field and as an Information Technology Specialist since then. Her GIS focus is on land and resource management, long-term impacts to the public, missing persons, and wildland fire. She is married to a law enforcement Officer and has experience working in the public safety community. Together they have fostered and adopted two amazing children from the state foster care system. She is also a founding member and Board member for the Glen Canyon Outdoor Academy (GCOA), a public charter school to serve the Navajo Nation and Page, Arizona communities. GCOA is set to open in August 2022 and has received full grant funding and Arizona charter school status.