Robert Vernon Lee, III is an American Episcopal priest and is chairman and CEO of Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit FreshMinistries and its international arm, Be The Change International. Lee is responsible for a number of initiatives and partnerships addressing issues of poverty worldwide. In the United States, efforts began with programs vital to the restoration of core-city Jacksonville. He has also spearheaded partnerships in Africa designed to combat HIV/AIDS and to address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Biography
Robert Vernon Lee, III, was born on January 14, 1951, in El Paso, Texas, to Colonel Robert V. Lee, Jr. and Cynthia Warren Lee.
He earned his bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University and continued graduate studies in journalism at the University of Georgia. He earned a master of divinity from Yale University and a doctorate of theology from New York Theological Seminary.
After serving as rector of Church of Our Saviour in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Lee founded FreshMinistries in 1988, which was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) the following year. FreshMinistries became Lee's full-time ministry in 1994, with goals of interfaith and interracial outreach.
He is currently serving as a non-stipendiary Canon for Outreach and Ecumenism in the Diocese of Florida, he's also served parishes in Connecticut and Florida.
He has served as the Chairman of the Interfaith Sub-Committee of the 2005 Super Bowl Host Committee in Jacksonville and as a director for: St. Mary's Outreach Ministry in Jacksonville, the Samaritan Center, Dignity-U-Wear, Christian Healing Ministries, and the Florida Council of Churches.
By appointment of Governor Jeb Bush, Lee currently serves as a member of the Governor's Faith-based Advisory Board for the state of Florida.
As a mayoral appointee he also serves on the Mayor's Faith-based and Community Advisory Board for the city of Jacksonville. Lee is also the first head of a not-for-profit organization to serve as a Director on the Board of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce.
He also serves on the board of directors for the Jacksonville Interfaith Council, Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville (HabiJax), and the Jacksonville Urban League. He is also a member of the Compass Rose Society, an organization of the Anglican Communion serving the Archbishop of Canterbury.
By appointment of Queen Elizabeth II, Lee has also been inducted into the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
Lee was appointed by President George W. Bush and continues to serve under President Barack Obama as a key member of the inaugural President's Council On Financial Literacy.
He currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife, Mirte de Boer Lee, and his two children.
International Partnerships
Lee has been involved with several international partnerships through his FreshMinistries projects.
Siyafundisa
In 2004, FreshMinistries received a 5-year, $10 million USAID grant for HIV/AIDS education in South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia. Lee helped initiate a partnership between FreshMinistries and the Church of the Province of Southern Africa to utilize the Anglican Church's presence and existing infrastructure to administer peer-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Siyafundisa had a 2009 annual target reach of 32,340 youth.
Global Action Partnership
In 2009, The Anglican Communion approached Lee about bringing worldwide the 6-Point Community Initiative, a holistic approach to community improvement that has been successful in Jacksonville, FL. Lee began talks with Hellen Wangusa, Anglican Observer at the United Nations; and Olara Otunnu, president of the LBL Foundation for Children, about creating a Global Action Partnership (GAP) that would address all of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals at once, the first program of its kind. In November 2009, GAP was signed into existence in New York City.
The creation of GAP was given a boost within the Anglican community by receiving the approval and support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at a dinner during the Episcopal Church's General Convention in 2009.