Vania Mendoza was born into a large family in Sacramento, CA where her interest in mental health was established. In 2011, she moved to the Bay Area and began her education in Psychology, which quickly developed into a focus in Neurodevelopment and Cognitive Science. While pursuing her education she launched into her professional career in behavioral health in 2017, providing strength-based behavioral healthcare in a residential setting to the diverse community of San Francisco, California. She is currently a Peer Supervisor with San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team, which is dispatched via 911 calls, and offers a rapid trauma-informed response to individuals experiencing acute behavioral health needs in the San Francisco community. She is passionate about culturally competent and trauma informed behavioral health care.