Vanessa Mason is the research director for IFTF’s Future 50 Partnership, a network of future-smart organizations that support strategic foresight research into the urgent futures that will shape the next decade across the business, social and civic spheres. Her research and foresight work delivers and scales behaviors, products, services, technologies and spaces with a focus on health and wellbeing.
Vanessa has led work at the intersection of inclusive design, innovation and health for global companies including Genentech, government entities including the City of Oakland and the Brazilian Ministry of Health, startups such as Iodine, and pilot innovations funded by foundations including the Aetna Foundation. Vanessa has written for and been quoted in several media outlets including NPR and Fast Company.
She is a frequent speaker and has been recognized as a 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival Spotlight Health Scholar, 40 Under 40 Tech Diversity Silicon Valley, 2016 New Leaders Council San Francisco Fellow, 200 Black Women in Tech to Follow on Twitter and as a 2016 TEDMED Research Scholar. She serves on the American Heart Association’s Social Impact Fund Investment Advisory Committee. Vanessa earned her BA in psychology from Yale University and her MPH in global health from Columbia University.
