Vanessa Volz

Vanessa Volz has been the executive director of Sojourner House since 2011. During her tenure, the agency has updated its mission statement, more than quadrupled its operating budget, and developed new community-based initiatives and housing programs. A licensed attorney, she previously practiced disability rights law, and she has published articles in the UC Berkeley Reproductive Rights Casebook and the Rutgers University Women’s Rights Law Reporter. She teaches at Rhode Island College in their Gender and Women Studies Program, and she also periodically serves as a visiting professor at Wheaton College. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, Bard College, Leadership Rhode Island, and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, as well as a 200 hour yoga teacher training. Originally from the Midwest, she made stops in New York, the west coast, and the southeast before establishing Rhode Island as her adopted home.