Vanessa Gonzalez, MPH
Director of Grant Programs
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Darien, Illinois

Vanessa has been involved in the association and philanthropic grantmaking field for 8 years and is the director of grant programs at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation. She is committed to supporting sleep health and science that matters and is accessible to patients, practitioners, and the public. In her current role, she oversees the development, implementation, and impact of grant programs by applying grantmaking best practices, increase collaborative efforts with external funding agencies and non-profit organizations on mutual areas of interest, and ensure diversity, equity, inclusion are core to all foundation programs.

Before her work in philanthropy, she gained extensive experience managing patient-centered clinical research in academia and led the development of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in the medical association field. She currently serves as the PEAK Grantmaking Chapter Chair.

Vanessa is a past recipient of the local Jefferson Award for Public Service at the University of Illinois at Chicago for creating a mentorship program for first-year Latino undergraduate students. She attained her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Public Health Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago.