Vanessa K. Harper

Vanessa K. Harper is an Executive Producer at TigerLily Media, a full-service, creative production and post-production company located in Jacksonville, Fl. Vanessa has a diverse background that spans both the arts and sciences. Prior to her role at TigerLily Media, she worked as a Producer at Brunet-García Advertising, and before that, as the Director of Education and Community Outreach at the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. She holds a BS in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina Asheville and an MS in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida through the Department of Food and Resource Economics. Vanessa spent 10 years in academia researching, teaching, and advising. Her graduate work was conducted in Cuba where she modeled and photo-documented small-scale livelihoods of rural farmers, explored land use and economically important plants, and investigated farmers’ integration into the market on local, regional, and national scales.

Vanessa is a strong believer in building community through volunteering and community service. In the past, she has served on the boards of the Jacksonville Film Festival, Equinox Documentaries, and the Horton Foote Legacy Project. She also served as a mentor for four years at Ribault High School through Take Stock in Children and Communities in Schools. She is a charter member of the Jacksonville Arboretum and a supporter of WJCT Public Broadcasting.

Vanessa has been a practitioner of yoga since 1997 and became a RYT 200 hour certified yoga teacher through Big Fish Power Yoga in 2013. She regularly practices a variety of styles of yoga, including Bikram, Ashtanga, Baptiste, and mixed-level Power Vinyasa. She joined the board of Yoga 4 Change in 2015 because she understands the power of yoga to transform lives and has seen, first-hand, how the organization affects positive change in the Jacksonville community.