Lived experience is not a footnote. It’s a framework!

- Vanessa Joy Walker, MPH (UNC Chapel Hill)

I help healthcare, life sciences, and mission-driven organizations integrate lived experience into strategy, education, partnerships, and communication—so it shapes decisions, not just stories

Work With Me
Speaking

A survivor’s experience should change how systems are built — not just how stories are told.

Trusted by Leaders in Healthcare, Advocacy, and Organizational Strategy

  • “Vanessa operates at a senior strategic level — shaping organizational planning, partnership strategy, and advocacy positioning alongside leadership teams. She brings lived experience as a strategic asset, not just a personal story. I would hire her again in a heartbeat.”

    Michael Pollock, Former CEO of DBSA

  • “Vanessa brings together clinicians, corporate partners, advocates, and policymakers to create real alignment around shared goals. She is a strategic coalition builder who clearly articulates both the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ — and delivers results.”

    Meredith Singer, CEO & Government Relations Leader

I work with organizations in three primary ways:

Strategy & Partnerships
I work with leadership teams to shape direction, structure initiatives, and build strong partnerships. This includes coalition development, advocacy strategy, and helping organizations navigate complex, cross‑sector relationships.

Speaking & Facilitation
I speak and facilitate conversations that center women’s health, survivorship, and mental health. This includes keynotes, panels, clinician education, and leadership sessions for conferences, ERGs, and mission‑driven events.

Training & Select Coaching
I train and support lived‑experience experts, advocates, and leaders to use their voices with clarity and impact. I also offer limited 1:1 support by inquiry for women navigating health‑related leadership and advocacy decisions.

Contact Me Today

Speaking & Facilitation

Give your audience more than inspiration.

Vanessa Joy Walker, MPH, is a national speaker and educator delivering keynotes, clinician education, and leadership sessions across healthcare, life sciences, and corporate organizations.

Her work draws from lived experience shaped by cancer, survivorship, and starting over more than once — alongside public health training and years of working with clinicians, advocates, and leadership teams. She speaks on women’s health, cancer survivorship, mental health, and life after crisis — including what it looks like to rebuild a life, a role, or a sense of self when life doesn’t go as planned.

She has delivered hundreds of talks, from small leadership rooms to stages of 3,000+.

There is story, humor and evidence. Plus, behind it all is real, lived expertise.

That expertise shapes how she works — and what audiences walk away with.

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Selected Partnerships & Features