Selected by the Board to serve as Interim Senior Executive of Urban Alliance, Veronica leads the organization during a leadership transition and a comprehensive review of opportunities ahead for Urban Alliance. She assumes this role as Managing Director of Illumascent LLC, a nonprofit consultancy focused on change, and as former Urban Alliance Executive Director and CEO. She held this position from 2002 to 2014, leading the organization’s expansion beyond its initial Washington, DC-based internship program.  Veronica earned several recognitions for this role including Washingtonian of the Year, the Meyer’s Exponent Award, and Washington Business Journal’s “Real Women Who Mean Business” and was a finalist for the Washington Post Nonprofit Excellence Award. She also participated in the 2010 Class of Leadership Greater Washington. Veronica began her professional career working with foster care youth and adjudicated youth in Charlottesville, Virginia. She then went on to teach Spanish for four years at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, DC through the Teach for America program. Since 2015 Veronica has been an adjunct professor at Trinity University teaching Critical Reading – a course specifically designed to prepare first generation students for their university experience. Veronica currently oversees her own firm that provides management consulting and leadership coaching to nonprofits in a moment of significant transition. She was elected to the Alexandria City Public School Board in 2016. Veronica received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts in teaching from Trinity University – Washington.