grantees » Vanessa Spacki

This grantee is still in the process of their leadership development with the JWH initiative.

Vanessa is a highly motivated and responsible woman who has devoted much of her time and efforts working to promote sustainable ecosystem protection and reduce vulnerability of local communities, through work at the Pantanal Network and the Brazilian NGO Ecoa. At Ecoa and at the Pantanal Network, Vanessa clearly demonstrated her leadership potential, as she was able to facilitate international organization, promote and enhance team communication, and develop strategy plans. Vanessa helped design and implement many ecology-focused programs that were successful thanks to collaborations with partner organizations like the Ministry of Fishing of Brazil, Criança Esperança/UNESCO, PPP-Ecos and others. One of her most valuable strengths is her clear vision and capacity to combine local priorities with concrete actions, proposals, and solutions.

With her JWH Initiative grant, Vanessa seeks to develop her confidence as a leader, learn and apply project management tools, deepen her understanding of global and local NGO networks working in ecology, and improve her English language skills so as to expand this network. To achieve these goals, Vanessa will be participating in a Professional Master’s Degree in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development, with an emphasis in Ecology, at the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecologicas (IPE)  in Nazaré Paulista/SP, Brazil. She also plans to take English courses and participate in personal leadership coaching. With the help of skills gained in these courses, Vanessa will take the next step in her work with ecosystem protection and local development by finding creative solutions to sustainability issues in the Pantanal region- “I greatly appreciate the support of this initiative to my training and I must also say that the riverine communities of the Pantanal are also thankful, because, my study will be guided in improving the quality of life for these families”.