Vernetta Walker, JD

Vernetta Walker is president and CEO of Walker & Associates Consulting. Vernetta also is a senior governance consultant and senior advisor on diversity, inclusion, and equity for BoardSource. With over two decades of experience as a nonprofit leader and consultant, Vernetta is passionate about helping organizations maximize their impact through exceptional leadership, intellectual engagement, and cultural competence. In addition to providing consulting and training, she is a frequent speaker on nonprofit leading practices, sector trends, and diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Vernetta has worked with hundreds of public charities, associations, and foundations across the country and globally. Her clients have included the Easterseals, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, YMCA of the USA, the National Aquarium, Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, Independent Sector, Gulf Coast Community Foundation, and the Walt Disney Company.

Prior to founding Walker and Associates, Vernetta served as chief governance officer and vice president of programs for BoardSource, associate general counsel and director of consulting for the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, foundation advocacy counsel for the Alliance for Justice, and director of the Administration of Justice Grants for the Florida Bar Foundation. She also practiced law for several years in Orlando, Florida.

Vernetta has extensive nonprofit board experience and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the March for Our Lives Action Fund (founded after the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL), and as President of the MFOL Foundation. Vernetta also is a part-time lecturer at Columbia University, where she teaches nonprofit governance and ethics at the graduate level; serves as a faculty member for NeighborWorks America; and is a certified cultural transformation consultant with the Barrett Values Centre.

Courses:

• NOPM PS5150: Nonprofit Governance
• NOPM PS5180: Ethics in the Nonprofit Sector