Chance Vernon is the Senior Grant Writer at Impact Justice. She works to sustain all of our programs to increase safety, justice, and honor the humanity of people impacted by the prison justice system. Chance has had a long career in program development and policy research to increase equity and access in public health, education, art, and outdoor spaces.
Prior to joining Impact Justice, Chance was a Senior Public Policy Analyst at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California San Francisco, conducting research and developing programs for women at risk for HIV, including women using injection drugs, the partners of injection drug users, women involved in sex work, and people impacted by homelessness. She also worked as the Director of Youth Education at Nature Forward in the Washington, D.C. region, advocating for protection of the local environment and opportunities for all youth to access and enjoy outdoor spaces. Chance is also a playwright whose works focuses on deconstructing archetypes around gender, caretaking, and family roles — usually via long imagined conversations between Demeter, Wonder Woman, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has worked as a creative writing and social science instructor at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
Chance has a BA in women’s studies and community studies from the University of California Santa Cruz and an MFA in creative writing from CalArts and is a United States Coast Guard licensed 50-ton boat Captain.