Dr. Vanessa Deane is the Chief Executive Officer of Pinchina Consulting and Assistant Clinical Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU Wagner), where she is also serving as the Director of Urban Planning.  For about a decade, she undertook an in-depth analysis of Haiti’s institutional development over the past 30 years in order to evaluate the country’s post-earthquake capacity for improved local governance and public service delivery. 

Dr. Deane’s prior experiences include serving as the lead consultant on a multi-year strategic planning and resource mobilization project in earthquake affected Petit Goâve, Haiti where she oversaw the execution of an environmental stabilization and reforestation initiative.  As part of this effort, she also facilitated an interactive community mapping project where she and her team trained community members to geolocate the most environmentally vulnerable areas of their neighborhoods.  Moreover, she was one of five Haitian-Americans selected by the Haitian Embassy in Washington D.C. to live and work in Haiti advising the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation in 2015.

In recognition of her teaching, Dr. Deane was named the 2020 Professor of the Year by the NYU Wagner graduating class – the first in the school’s history to have received this distinguished award in just their first year as a faculty member.  Other accolades include receiving the 2018 Impact Award – Young Women Rising from the American Women for International Understanding as well as being inducted into the Haitian Roundtable’s 1804 List as one of the Top 5 Haitian-Americans to Watch in 2015 for her professional contributions.

She holds a doctorate in Public and Urban Policy from The New School and a Master of Urban Planning from NYU Wagner.  Dr. Deane graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University with her Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies as well as in American Studies, along with double minors in Education Studies and in Social Justice and Social Policy.