Dr. C. Vanessa White is Associate Professor of Spirituality and Ministry  as well as the Director of the Certificate in Black Theology and Ministry at Catholic Theological Union.  She received her Doctor of Ministry and Master of Theological Studies degrees from Catholic Theological Union, with additional post-graduate work at Xavier University of Louisiana and Loyola University Chicago.  She is also a member of the faculty for Xavier University’s Summer Institute for Black Catholic Studies in New Orleans where she teaches in both the Master’s degree and Continuing Education and Enrichment Program.  

She is co-editor of the book (with Dr. Cecilia Moore and Fr. Paul Marshall, SM), Songs of the Heart and Meditations of the Soul – A book of prayers published by St. Anthony Messenger Press, and  contributing author for the books  Amoris Laetitia: A New Momentum for Moral Formation and Pastoral Practice published by Paulist Press  and Religion, Women of Color and the Suffrage Movement published by Lexington books.  She has published articles and essays in the Concillum: the International Journal of Theology, Horizons: Journal for the College Theology Society, The Bible Today, America and U.S. Catholic Magazine. She was asked by CNN News to contribute to their “Black in America” series with an op - piece that can be found online at cnn.org entitled “Authentically Black and Truly Catholic”.   She is a regular contributor to Give Us This Day – daily prayer journal published by Liturgical Press.

She is Past Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium, a theological association of Black Catholic theologians and scholars as well as a member of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and the Catholic Theological Society of America. A professed Secular Franciscan Vanessa works with Bishop Joseph N. Perry (postulator for the cause) in promoting the cause of Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton and is featured in a new documentary on the life and letters of Fr. Augustus Tolton.

In 2022, she became the first lay woman to preach the nine-day novena in honor of St. Jude at the National Shrine to St. Jude in Chicago, IL.