Vanessa Cárdenas

Director of Ethnic Media

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Vanessa Cárdenas is the Director for Ethnic Media at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC. Prior to American Progress, she worked as a Policy/Communications Associate and Outreach Coordinator at the National Immigration Forum where she helped bridge the policy, communications and grassroots advocacy world to disseminate the Forum’s message and work.

At the Forum, she participated in numerous local and national organizing and legislative campaigns such as the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, the campaign to defeat Proposition 200 in Arizona and the establishment of the We are America coalition.

Prior to the Forum, she managed and administered public education and outreach programs serving diverse communities on a range of issues such as education, civic participation and immigration. Vanessa was profiled as one of the “100 People to Watch in the Next Century” by Washingtonian Magazine.

Vanessa holds a B.A. in Government and Politics and a Master’s in Public Administration both from George Mason University and is a graduate of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, grew up in Bolivia and currently lives in Arlington, VA.

Media appearances: Cárdenas regularly appears in CNN en Español, Telemundo, Univision, BBC among others and has been widely quoted in various print publications such as the US News and World Report, The Washington Post and La Opinion.