Vanessa was born into an up and coming middle class family.  Her father, Curtis Tompkins (1964-2052), was a trained dentist. Her mother, Felicity Dale (1972-2098) worked as his dental hygienist until their marriage in 1995. While operating a successful practice, Curtis developed a proprietary dental scheduling program. Using the proceeds from the sale of the software and incurring a large amount of debt, Curtis opened six additional dental clinics. While the clinics were profitable, the service on the debt left the family teetering on bankruptcy until 2021 when all loans were suddenly paid in full.

Vanessa graduated at the top of her class from a prestigious private high school. She was active on the school’s tennis team and swimming squad and volunteered at a home for the aged during her senior year. Over the summers she worked in her father’s office with the patient records.

Upon graduation, she took a job in Port Canaveral in the operations department of Disney Cruise Lines scheduling the resupply of the cruise ship fleet. When the cruise ships were idled during the COVID epidemic, she was temporarily transferred to Disney World where she worked in the animatronics maintenance scheduling department. The amusement parks closed shortly after the cruise lines did causing Vanessa to be furloughed. In July 2020, the Hoagland Institute planned to open a new department in Buena Vista, Florida using Disney staff.  Vanessa was discovered to have DNA compatible with the Institute's objectives and Vanessa was hired to oversee a new human resource office specific to the new department. 

When the project in Buena Vista was complete, Vanessa was transferred to Titusville where, with Jack Burlinghoff becoming unstable, she was placed in charge of human resources.  After Vanessa was brought into the Institute, her mother was examined.  Felicity Thompkins tested extremely well but was considered to be too old to be a test subject.  Her DNA was sequenced and sent to Zeta Reticuli.