Vanessa Russell was named CEO of Catholic Charities Atlanta March 1, 2015. Catholic Charities Atlanta creates hope and provides help to over 20,000 individuals annually. She has been a Catholic Charities Atlanta Board member for 5 years. She has served most recently as the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Vanessa started her career in Sales for Dun & Bradstreet, Inc then moved to senior quality and operations roles at ACNielsen, and VNU, Inc. in Brussels, Belgium. She has extensive experience in sales, marketing, operations and process re-engineering. She has been a USO volunteer and served on several volunteer boards since coming to Atlanta.

Born at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, she attended the University of New Orleans and is one of 7 children.  She and her husband, Steven, moved to Atlanta 14 years ago from Madison, New Jersey. Both she and her husband are “military brats.”  Her husband is a US Military Academy (West Point) graduate and the CFO of a local medical technology company.