Vanessa Mininger

Background

About Vanessa Mininger

Starting as a volunteer in a Children's Emergency Shelter in 1997, I moved my way up from a teachers assistant to the assistant director of one of the largest child care and early education facilities in Northern Colorado. After spending five years with ABC Child Development Centers, I began working for United Way as a resource specialist for child care programs. I successfully wrote multiple grants ranging in award levels up to $1 million over the course of my three years there. When the opportunity to work for Head Start as an Education Coordinator became available, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, after only a year in the position, funding was cut and I was offered a position as an interim Children's Ministry Director in California. When my year was up I was approached by a local pre-school to become their Director. In under three months I was able to increase enrollment from 30 students to over 100 through a targeted marketing campaign and developing community contacts. Once the program was running successfully and I had groomed a replacement, I took a position at a local Christian school that was just starting as a Middle School ELA teacher. During my time there, I was given increased responsibilities including becoming a mentor teacher. After five years as a teacher, I was approached by the Head of Schools to become the Academic Dean and Campus Administrator for the Jr/Sr High Campus. I was responsible for over 300 students and 50+ staff and faculty. I oversaw major projects and programs including AP classes, online classes, professional development, scheduling and student success. While teaching at the school I also began teaching for Fresno Pacific University as an adjunct professor in the Early Ed program. In 2019 I decided to pursue my Ed.D in Learning and Organizational Change at Baylor University and to only continue teaching at FPU. I enjoy new challenges and embrace the opportunity to learn new skills every chance I get. One day I hope to be able to share my knowledge and experience through public speaking engagements at educational conferences and consulting with schools experiencing administrative turn over.