Vernella Fuller was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica in 1956, the second of six children. She moved to England at the age of eleven to join her parents. She went to secondary school in South London, received her first degree from the University of Sussex, a post-graduate teacher's certificate from Goldsmiths College, London University, an MA and her PhD from the Institute of Education, London University. She has been an educator, a businesswoman and writer. Vernella has one daughter, Alisha Nadine. Vernella now lives in Montego Bay, Jamaica.