Vanessa Rodriguez is currently an advanced doctoral candidate in the Human Development and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received a Master’s of Education from the Education Policy and Management program at HGSE. Vanessa earned her BA in Literature and English Education from NYU and a Master’s in Science Education from City College of NY before coming to HGSE.

She spent over ten years teaching middle school Humanities in several NYC public schools and took on various leadership positions serving as a Director of Middle School Curriculum and Instruction, curriculum developer, project advisor, and teacher mentor. Her work on classroom practice has been utilized by Hunter College’s Urban Teacher Residency program, NYC’s collaboration with Teaching Matters, the United Federation of Teacher’s Teacher Center, and many public schools throughout NYC. Vanessa held several positions as lecturer in literacy, Social Studies’ education and teacher training at New York University and Hunter College.

She was one of the first recipients to receive the prestigious Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching award for her research on the teaching brain. Serving as guest editor she also published a series of early papers in the Mind, Brain and Education journal contributing to a yearlong series dedicated to research on understanding the teaching brain. Vanessa is the founder of The Teaching Brain Project which conducts studies utilizing two-person neuroscience. Her book, The Teaching Brain, earned her the #1 New Release in Education Psychology on Amazon.com.