Vanessa Rials

Vanessa Rials, LMSW, serves as an instructor of social work and director of field education at Newman University. She has been actively involved in the Master of Social Work program since at least 2017, where she teaches and mentors students while also directing field education experiences.

Rials specializes in mental health, grief counseling, trauma-informed care, and cultural competence. Her research and speaking engagements focus on what she calls 'invisible burdens'—the hidden struggles people carry despite appearing fine on the surface. Her work is deeply informed by personal experience, including her own recovery from brain surgery in June 2022 that required a six-day intensive care unit stay.

Rials has delivered over 75 speaking engagements across the Midwest since 2017, presenting at conferences, schools, and agency trainings. In November 2024, she spoke at the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City conference, where she shared her personal story of medical trauma for the first time publicly.

• Director of Field Education, Newman University
• Crisis Therapist at Comcare (Sedgwick County mental health services), one night weekly
• Creator of 'Positive Perspective' speaking platform
• Featured in documentary about 'Night Under the Stars' homeless awareness initiative

Rials maintains close mentoring relationships with students like Delphine Sosu, a Master of Social Work student who credits Rials with supporting her both academically and personally. She is mentored by Yelando Johnson, Ed.D., LMSW, MBA, director of Newman's Master of Social Work program. Rials, who is biracial (African American and Mexican-American), plans to expand her speaking platform with a major keynote address scheduled for April 2026, with aspirations to eventually speak at TED Talks.