Vanessa Nordyke is a mental health advocate, Salem City Councilor and a Senior Assistant Attorney General at the Oregon Department of Justice. Vanessa is an award-winning mentor to local students. She helped found the Marion County Veterans Treatment Court. She serves on the Salem Family YMCA Board of Directors and Oregon National Alliance on Mental Illness Board of Directors. Her commitment to service began in her teens, with work on issues like homelessness, veterans, domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse, women’s rights, at-risk youth, and the empowerment of communities of color since the 1990s.
In 2018, Vanessa made history as the youngest ever-elected President of the Oregon State Bar, a unified bar of about 19,500 lawyers and judges. As President, Vanessa brought wellness to the forefront, by overseeing the creation of mandatory mental health and substance training for all Oregon lawyers, and spearheading OSB’s first Wellness Summit.
Vanessa graduated with honors from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service with a Bachelor’s of Science in International Political Economy in 2002. After graduating from University of Oregon School of Law in 2008, Vanessa was admitted to the prestigious Honors Attorney Program with the Oregon Department of Justice, where she has made her career as a civil rights lawyer. She is the recipient of Oregon DOJ's Excellence in Justice Award, the Marion County Bar Association’s Carson Award for Service to the Community; and the University of Oregon School of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award.