Vanessa Monterosa

Role: Senior Strategic Leader Organization: NewSchools Venture Fund Location: Los Angeles, California Email: vmonterosa@newschools.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vmonterosa/ Relationship Depth: External Partner

Education

• Harvard University Graduate School of Education (2010-2011)
• California State University, Long Beach - Ed.D. (2014-2017)

Professional Background

Dr. Monterosa specializes in advancing research, policy, and practices that support educational innovation. Key expertise areas:

• Digital citizenship curriculum and policy implementation
• Educational leadership and technology integration
• Civic learning and youth engagement
• Equity in education for Latino/urban populations

Notable work includes authoring “Deepening Digital Citizenship: A Guide to Systemwide Policy and Practice” (2023) and dissertation research on district-wide digital citizenship initiatives at Los Angeles Unified.

Recognition

Recipient of 8 major fellowships and honors including CSULB Post-Doctoral Fellow, Education Pioneers Fellow, and HASTAC Scholar.

Working Relationship

Contact for New Schools Venture Fund partnership exploring AI Flash Lab for their portfolio organizations.

Interactions

Date	Context	Notes
Jan 2025	EdTech Impact Summit	Initial connection, expressed interest in Flash Lab
Jan 29, 2026	Discovery call w/ Josh	See meeting notes below

Notes

• Connection originated from EdTech Impact Summit
• Interested in Flash Lab for New Schools portfolio organizations
• Potential [SCALE-MOMENT] if adopted across portfolio
• [BRIDGE-BUILD] [RIPPLE] opportunity

Jan 29, 2026 Meeting Notes

Personal context: Third week back at work after a family loss.

Flash Lab impact on her:

• “I flew back home saying ‘I made a thing!’” [QUOTED IMPACT]
• Only second time ever doing something like this (first was 2014)
• Woke up a feeling that had been dormant - wants to help others experience this

Key insight - EdD programs:

• EdD = practitioner-focused, project-based dissertations
• “Really good place to find early-stage entrepreneurs”
• Challenge: keeps people thinking within the system, need “invitation to think beyond”
• NewSchools has funded people still in grad programs

Philosophy:

• Educators don’t see themselves as entrepreneurs
• Bureaucracy limits ability to dream
• Wants space where librarian, CTO, educator, researcher sit at same table

Resource shared: https://www.eshub.org/

Next: Will connect in next month. Potential Altadena/Pasadena community connection.