Vanessa Barchfield is a senior media specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity. A Tucson native, Barchfield previously worked as communications director with Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz and as a producer and reporter at the NPR/PBS Arizona Public Media, where she earned two Emmys and three Edward R. Murrow Awards. After graduating from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2004, she spent many years abroad, studying journalism in India and working as a reporter in Brazil, before moving to Austria, where she worked with the Economist Group and United Nations.