Vanessa Calderón-Rosado leads IBA—Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, an organization founded in 1968 that today aims to empower individuals to improve their lives through high-quality affordable housing, education, and arts programs. During Vanessa’s tenure, since 2003, IBA has achieved a dramatic financial, operational, and programmatic turnaround, positioning it as the largest Latino-led nonprofit in Greater Boston.

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In 2010, Vanessa became the first Latina in Massachusetts history appointed to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. She currently serves as president of the Franklin Square House Foundation, vice president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, a trustee of Eastern Bank, and as a member of community and diversity advisory councils for the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She also is a founding board member of the Margarita Muñiz Academy, the first dual-language innovation high school in Massachusetts.

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Vanessa earned her doctorate in public policy from UMass Boston, and she received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge College.