Vanessa Bronsema specializes in helping groups and individuals understand, prevent, address, and resolve conflict. She provides mediation, group facilitation, training, and coaching services to individuals and groups of all types, including at workplaces, with families, in community groups, and between neighbors. Vanessa is known for deep, active listening, asking thought-provoking questions, and encouraging individuals and groups to develop their own creative solution to the challenges they are experiencing. She finds supporting people through difficult conversations to be humbling and transformative work.

A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, systems thinker, and conflict resolution "nerd", Vanessa holds dual master's degrees in Conflict & Dispute Resolution and Public Administration from the University of Oregon's schools of Law and Planning, Public Policy & Management (PPPM) where she specialized in government ethics. She also has a B.A. in global humanities and religion ("Liberal Studies") from Western Washington University. With over a decade of experience in human resources leadership, including extensive work in collective bargaining and labor relations, Vanessa understands complex workplace dynamics, organizational systems, and power dynamics between individuals or groups. Prior to working in HR, Vanessa was a Mediation Case Manager for the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center (WDRC) where she continues to volunteer. While leading HR teams and supporting the technical aspects of HR from within organizations, Vanessa also continues to conduct independent workplace facilitations and trainings, including leadership retreats and board retreats. She is trained in restorative justice and restorative circles practices, and incorporates key learnings from those practices to all of her work.

Vanessa lives in Bellingham, WA with her family. She was born and raised in Lynden, WA, and loves the beauty and bounty found throughout all of Whatcom County and the Pacific Northwest. Vanessa and her family enjoy being a part of their community groups, and together visiting the gorgeous area parks, the library, and locally-owned businesses. When she isn't working or joyfully corralling her young children, Vanessa might be found connecting with friends or reading near the water or in a coffee shop. She loves biking, hiking, practicing and learning about yoga, gathering family and friends for meals and celebrations, organizing everything in her home, and listening to folk music.