Our Leadership

Vanessa Leon, founder and principal planner of Pinchina Consulting, is a Haitian American urban planner. Her prior experiences include working as manager of public policy at the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as a policy consultant to New York City’s Office of Financial Empowerment and as a research assistant to New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Vanessa has also served as Vice Chair At-Large for the International Division of the American Planning Association (APA).

Vanessa earned a Master of Urban Planning, with a specialization in Economic Development and Housing Policy, from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brandeis University where she majored in African and African American Studies and in American Studies, with minors in Education Studies and in Social Justice and Social Policy. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Urban and Regional Planning and Design at the University of Maryland – College Park, specializing in international planning.

Vanessa enjoys practicing her violin, reading or crocheting in her spare time. She is fluent in Haitian Creole, proficient in Spanish, and a native New Yorker.