She was voted Journalist of the Year together with her colleagues Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier. In the summer of 2015 she completed the Lede Program in Data Science at Columbia University in New York. Previously Vanessa was an editor at Heilbronner Stimme. In Heilbronn she advocated Open Data as a member of Code for Germany. The photo was taken by Stephanie Füssenich.