Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs
Vanessa Richardson, MA Ed. joined Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in early 2016 during the inaugural opening with an extensive background in STEM education and curriculum development. She comes from Las Cruces Public Schools where she worked as a Health Science, Medical Terminology, Microbiology, and Anatomy & Physiology teacher as well as a Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Advisor. Her career has been focused on the advancement of the design and development of Health Science curriculum within New Mexico public schools. As the Literacy Design Collaborative Science Representative, she developed and assisted faculty in the implementation of the Common Core Standards for Science for the state of New Mexico. Her endeavors led to receiving a High Schools That Work grant for the Las Cruces High School Pre-Nursing Pathway.
She has a passion for advising and mentoring new teachers and students; forging their health science career paths. This passion was recognized by the academic community when Ms. Richardson received the “Outstanding Educator” award while working with the Hawaii Department of Education as well as a Teacher of Year nomination with Las Cruces Public Schools.
Ms. Richardson is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer where she worked as a Rural Health Advisor and aid worker in Southern Armenia and Northern Iran. While there she taught classes in reproductive health in extremely impoverished areas as well as courses in basic finance for women. She collaborated with NGOs for funding of community projects, conducted child development seminars, and taught literacy classes specifically for woman and girls in the area.
She has over sixteen years of teaching experience and has degrees in both the Biological Sciences as well Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction. Ms. Richardson has recently been accepted into the Harvard Macy Institute Course: A Systems Approach to Assessment in Health Professions Education and will attend this Spring.
