Vanessa Carroll is Special Assistant to the Dean at the School of Dentistry (SOD).

Prior to joining the School of Dentistry, Vanessa held the position of Director of Special Projects at the School of Medicine. At the SOD, Vanessa provides leadership to the School’s developing DEI initiatives, including the Dean’s Diversity Advisory Group, the Inclusive Excellence and Equity Committee and a Minority Faculty Recruitment and Retention project.  She began her professional career in 1978 as Program Director for the YWCA of Central Maryland, where she was drawn to and inspired by the organization’s national mission of dedication to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. An early career assignment also included work with the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland where Vanessa co-led a project ultimately aimed at making girl scouting more accessible to urban communities.

Vanessa holds a Bachelor’s degree from Towson State University, where she was a Communications major. She earned a Master’s degree in Administrative Sciences from Johns Hopkins University. She has more than 20 years of marketing, behavioral change communication and strategic planning leadership in the health and education sectors.  Her career focus has been in advancing the missions of non-profit service enterprises. Within this milieu she has been an effective voice for underserved and underrepresented minorities. As communications advisor with two United States Agency for International Development-funded programs, Vanessa traveled extensively to Southeast Asia, West and South Africa and Latin America promoting behavioral change communication partnerships that help advance health equity initiatives. 

As a member of DAC, Vanessa looks forward to working with the council and the UMB community as a whole, in advancing and achieving its diversity, equity and inclusion equity goals.