Vanessa is an environmentalist and Uganda's first Fridays for Future striker. She co-founded Tard Foundation, an organisation working to support the work of grassroots activists. Vanessa holds a Business Administration degree from Makerere University Business School, and is the author of A Bigger Picture and the founder of the Rise Up climate movement, which works to amplify the voices of different activists from the African continent.

Vanessa started the Vash Green Schools Project, which aims to install solar panels and clean cooking stoves in Uganda's schools. The United Nations named Vanessa a Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2020, and Time magazine added her to its Time100 Next list in 2021. She was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2022 and serves on the Malala Fund Board.

Vanessa's key policy interests are climate justice and equity, climate resilience and awareness, climate policy and political action and transition to renewable energy.

Vanessa is a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann scholar.