Vanessa Cardona Kepp is the Head of Innovation at DonorsChoose, an award-winning nonprofit and the #1 crowdfunding platform for U.S. public school teachers. She is a part of the executive leadership team that launched ColorPop Books, a one-of-a-kind bookshop specializing in identity-affirming and representative books for families, and is now focused on building innovative new models, products, and services to support educators and learners across the US.

Vanessa is a dynamic product and operations leader with a 15-year track record, spanning from early-stage startups to big tech companies. Throughout her career, she has been a passionate advocate for BIMPOC and moms in the tech field, actively working to create opportunities for better representation.

From a young age, Vanessa's love for music and theatre was evident, but she came to the realization in college that Broadway roles weren’t written for someone who looked like her. Undeterred, she channeled that fierce determination into a multifaceted career journey, where she excelled in building new businesses from the ground up and scaling products globally. Vanessa's first venture into the tech world was at Trunk Club, where she led the customer experience team through hyper-growth, culminating in a $320 million acquisition by Nordstrom. Most recently, she spearheaded a new business initiative at Amazon that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and launched in six countries.

Vanessa holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Columbia College Chicago. She currently resides in Chicago with her husband (and college sweetheart), Jeremy, and their two children, Jackson and Grey. Vanessa and Jeremy are constantly melding her Mexican roots into the lives and traditions of their family. In her downtime, you can find her hosting family for a cookout or buried under a pile of books.