Although she is the head of the Arts & Entertainment desk, Vanessa also has an interest in reporting development issues with a human angle and solutions-based approach. She uses data/statistics in reporting a range of topics including women & children, environment, agriculture, health and women in business among others and has done this for about a decade. Vanessa is a 2017 IHP intern of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp and a 2017 Fellow of the ICFJ-United Nations Foundation Reporting Fellowship on Climate and Migration.