Verna is Chair of the Board of the Toronto Arts Council. She is a member of the Conseil des arts de Montréal as well as the President of the Visual Arts since 2006. In 2010, she presided over the jury of the Ozias-Leduc Prize. In 2017, she was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Canada to highlight and recognize her significant contribution to the advancement of the arts in France and around the world. She was named curator, choosing the work of Kapwani Kiwanga, of the Canadian Pavillion for the 60th Venice Biennale.
