Vanessa Rush Southern (born 1968) is an American Unitarian minister notable for increasing church membership as well as being a progressive liberal advocate of issues such as reproductive health care options for women, diversity and racial tolerance, affordable housing including projects for Habitat for Humanity, human rights, and remembrance of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. She became Senior Minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco in July, 2017. Previously she was minister of the Unitarian Church in Summit from 2001 to 2014 where she presided over high-profile weddings as well as local community discussions on topics such as diversity and tolerance and the "achievement gap" between low–income and high–income families. Her father was the