Dr. Vanessee Burns, an ordained Elder, is the daughter of the late Henry and Florence Burns, and the God-given daughter of Minister Brenda Springs of Greenville, South Carolina. In November 2022, she retired from 30 years of Pastoral Ministry after successfully building and growing congregations and community relationships across five states. During her pastoral years, nearly 70 persons have answered the call to ministry and hundreds of souls have come to Christ. She has led mission teams across the U.S. as well as abroad to Jamaica, Haiti, Nigeria and East Africa.  In these projects, they distributed food, clothing, toiletries and school supplies as well as repaired buildings. In 2009 she and her team built a school in Nsit Atai, Nigeria and named it the Carter Tabernacle CME School. In 2022, due to her sacrifice and service, a school in Rwanda was dedicated and now bears her image and name.
Retiring from her pastoral role allowed her to focus on Marketplace Ministry as the Apostolic Leader of Kingdom First Ministries, a Global Marketplace Ministry with the perfect balance of intellectual, spiritual and mental well being. In KFM the gifts for ministry are fully operational until the body of Christ is edified. KFM serves as the covering for individuals, ministries and churches that seek to grow and operate in their gifts through teaching, missions and outreach and provides educational certification, licensure and ordination.
She also serves at Georgetown University, Washington, DC and Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School, Rochester, NY.  At Georgetown she serves in two positions:   1) Resident Minister to graduate students where she supports the spiritual and religious needs of students of all religions, beliefs, and identities to connect their faith, spirituality, and values with curricular and co-curricular opportunities and 2) Advisor For Spiritual Care 55H, a pilot position, in which she works in close collaboration with the Director for Mission Integration, as well as other chaplains, and staff and the 55H Residential Educational team. The Advisor provides group and individual spiritual care and programming to the students, faculty and staff of the 55H Street Community. At Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School,  she serves as Faculty Associate and Advisor for the Graduate Certificate in Foundations for Theological Education. 
Dr. Burns received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia; a Master of Divinity from the Phillips School of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia with a concentration in Biblical Languages and Old Testament; and a Doctor of Ministry from Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC. Dr. Burns is a lifelong scholar who pursues excellence and inspires others to as well. She has a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Marriage and Family Therapy from NorthCentral University and has been accepted into the Graduate Certificate Program in Adaptive and Innovative Leadership at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She is a Certified Clinical Counselor (ACPE) and served as a full-time Prison Chaplain at Perry Correctional Institute with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and did resident training with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, Anderson, SC., the Georgia Department of Corrections and the VA Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.
She has authored two books, 30 Days of Meditation, a spiritual guide through life lessons coupled with meditative prayers and scriptures, and Let’s Talk About Tongues, an exploration and dialogue about the controversial and often misunderstood topic of Speaking in Tongues. 
Dr. Burns has worked on many levels in community organizations. In Charlotte, North Carolina, she was appointed by the mayor as a member of the Citizen’s Review Board wherein she was also elected as the chairperson. In Orlando, she served as a member of The Mayor’s Clergy Liaison, The Orlando Health Community Council on Spirituality and Healing, and the African-American Council of Christian Clergy. And in Dallas, Texas,  she was an active member of Kappa Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.; Chartering Member of the Dallas Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, where she served as Chaplain; The Texas Black Women’s Pac; Affiliate member of the Dallas Area Interfaith; Dallas Police Department Advisory Board; And former Texas Tri-Chairperson of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival.
Most recently, she was selected by Georgia State University, “The Garden Initiative for Black Women’s Religious Activism”, as a mentor in its mentorship program as well as appointed to Pathways Academic Council of the United Church of Christ where her duties are to assist in revising the writing and teaching curricula for ministers seeking ordination.
She believes in empowering communities and people, making a difference one person at a time. Her love and passion is teaching the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Her belief is that true teaching is done by both precept and example and her hope is that whenever a person encounters her that they might know that God loves them and desires that none of us should perish.