Meet B.Leah

Leah J. Burgess (B. Leah) is a mother, wife, daughter, spoken word artist, published author, student, school chaplain, and advocate.

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She was licensed to preach as a minister in November 2006 and was ordained as an elder in November 2019. Currently, a graduating senior at Howard University (MDiv and MSW). Leah is the Howard University School of Divinity Student Council Executive President. She was an inaugural John & Barbara Jacob Social Work Social Justice Fellow (HUSSW), a Research Assistant for the Howard University School of Divinity: Theology, Racialized Policing, and Justice Reform Cohort Program and Equipping the Saints: Promising Practices in Black Congregations Resource Center at Howard University School of Divinity (HUSD).

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B. Leah has over a decade of experience working with survivors and victims of sexual violence. She has faithfully committed to that work through various roles in Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Washington, DC. In her current role as the chaplain at Takoma Academy Seventh-day Adventist High School, she continues to walk alongside high school students, their families, faculty, and staff members as they explore their spiritual, social, and emotional lives in connection to God.

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B. Leah exercises her faith in Christ through an Afrocentric, abolitionist, and womanist framework. She seeks to cultivate sacred, creative, contemplative healing spaces that engage community members’ minds, bodies, and souls. Leah cares deeply about people's overall wellness. She incorporates hope, rest, and recreative activities into her daily life while enjoying caring for plants, baking bread, journaling, going on date nights with her husband, spending time with her friends and family, and engaging in silence as a liberating and contemplative practice.