Vanella Crawford was born in Washington, D.C. in 1948. Her family lived in a public housing project in LeDroit Park until she was nine, at which point they moved to 16th Street and Monroe Street NW. She attended Lucretia Mott Elementary School, Garnet-Patterson Junior High School, and Cardozo Senior High School, graduating in 1965. Crawford attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to Washington, D.C. to enroll in Federal City College (now the University of the District of Columbia) when it opened in the fall of 1968. One of her most profound experiences at Federal City College was spending a semester traveling with other students in Europe and Africa. Crawford majored in social work and after graduation attended Howard University School of Social Work for a graduate degree. She went on to work as a therapist and counselor.