Vera R. Johnson is a managing attorney in the Housing Unit at the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York. A 1989 graduate of Albany Law School, she served as an administrative law judge and supervising administrative law judge for the New York State Office of Temporary Disability Assistance for over 20 years. After her retirement in 2018, Johnson began volunteering with, among others, the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York’s Private Attorney Involvement Program, negotiating for and appearing with clients in landlord/tenant cases in local courts throughout the region until 2021.

Johnson is also an ordained minister, having earned a master’s of arts in pastoral ministry at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, New York, and currently serves as an associate minister and certified grief-informed professional at Macedonia Baptist Church in Albany, New York. She is committed to building just communities and empowering marginalized people through legal channels to address individual and systemic inequities.