OUR MISSION

OUR VISIONARY LEADERSHIP 

Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen, III, is a religious trailblazer, author, human rights advocate,  an international and community leader and entrepreneur. Bishop O.C. Allen is the  Senior Pastor and Founder of The Vision Cathedral of Atlanta known as “The Vision  Church”. The Vision Church has 3 campuses, The Vision Church of Atlanta, Vision  Church of Raleigh, Vision Church of Los Angeles and Vision Church of Nashville. He is  the founder and Presiding Bishop of the United Progressive Pentecostal Fellowship  of Churches (UPPC), a progressive Christian and inclusive religious organization which  oversees senior pastors, ministers, churches and faith-based organizations throughout  the United States and abroad. He also is a Commissioner on the Atlanta Human Rights  Commission.  

  In 2015, Bishop Allen was appointed by President Barak Obama to the Presidential  Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). In 2016, he was appointed the Southeastern  Chair of the DNC-LGBT Advisory Board and a co-chair of the DNC LGBTQ Policy  Group. He has served as the National Ambassador and consultant for the NAACP –  Black Church/HIV Initiative. Bishop O.C. Allen also serves as Faith Consultant for the  CoPN Covid and Vaccine Network.  

He is also the Executive Director of Vision Community Foundation Inc., a non-profit  organization created to address socioeconomic and health gaps in the greater Atlanta  community. The Vision Community Foundation annually feeds over 20,000 families  through its “Community In Action” (CIA) program, over 2000 women and children in its  local shelters program, provides clothing and toys specifically for homeless children,  provides GED training for students completing diplomas, provides Breast Cancer  awareness education, and provides HIV/AIDS counseling and testing. The Vision  Community Foundation hosts the annual Atlanta Black-Pride “Pure Heat Community  Festival,” which provides health education, social services and entertainment for over  30,000 people. He is a member of the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS. He is the  author of Master Your Emotions, a Christian self-helps and motivation book.  

  Bishop Allen has been honored by a host of community and national groups including  the Georgia House of Representatives in 2012. In 2014, Bishop Allen inducted into the  prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. International Board of Preachers of Morehouse  College. Bishop Allen hosted the national Economic and Business Conference for LGBT  Entrepreneurs in conjunction with the efforts of the U.S. Small Business Administration  in Atlanta, GA. He served as a regional spokesperson for the National Black Justice  Coalition LGBT Economic Empowerment Tour for communities of color. He has worked  closely with the U.S. Small Business Administration to provide support to LGBT and  other minority entrepreneurs in the community. In April 2015, the Georgia District Office  of the U.S. Small Business Administration awarded Bishop Allen the 2015 LGBT  Business Champion of the Year Award for his strong advocacy for minority business  initiatives and development. Bishop Allen has been featured in numerous media outlets  and periodicals to include CNN, BET, The Economist and Huffington Post. 

He attended Morgan State University, Morehouse College, and Harvard University Harvard Extension School where he studied Philosophy and Religion. He is a Fellow at  the Princeton Theological Seminary Black Theology and Leadership Institute.  

In 2018, Bishop Allen birthed the national iElevate Conference. This conference was  designed to offer many of the country’s great thought-provoking thinkers, leaders and  voices a platform to safely participate and address some of the most sensitive and  salient subjects. The conference is of the first and only Black LGBTQI-inclusive  conferences with a mission to Black communities with the resources and tools needed  to impact their immediate community and reach their goals. The inaugural conference  included the first campaign, Prevention From The Pulpit – designed to train clergy  how to address the epidemic of H.I.V./A.I.D.S from the pulpit. 

In 2018, Allen was appointed to Atlanta’s Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ LGBT Advisory  Board. This same year, he delivered historic prayer to millions of Muslims as one of the  first openly Gay men to participate in the Million Man March Commemoration organized  by the Nation of Islam.  

  Bishop Allen was born on January 24th, 1973 in Los Angeles, California. He is married  to Mr. Rashad Burgess of Chicago, Illinois. Rashad Burgess is an Executive Director for  Gilead Sciences, Inc. and was formerly the branch Chief of the Capacity Building  Branch at the CDC’s division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. They are the proud fathers of 2  beautiful children, Joshua and Caylee. In 2013, Bishop Allen and his family made  history by being the first Same-Gender-Loving couple to be selected as one of Ebony  Magazine’s “top 10 Coolest Black Families” in America. 

MR. RASHAD BURGESS, “First Gentlemen”

Rashad Burgess, known as “The First Gentlemen”, is the husband of Bishop O.C. Allen. He is a founding member of Vision Cathedral of Atlanta with its humble beginning in March 2006. He professionally serves as the National
Executive Director for HIV Community for Gilead Sciences. He is a key member of Gilead’s HIVSenior Leadership Team contributing to overall strategy for the HIV Business Unit and is a strategic and trusted partner helping community and sales professionals as well as those in the overall health care industry make their vision a reality.

He joined Gilead in 2013, first as an HIV Community Liaison, then as a Regional Director of Community Liaisons, then as one of the first Senior Regional Directors in the HIV Prevention Sales Team. Rashad has a track record of excellence here and is a member of Gilead’s Circle of Excellence.

He has dedicated much of his life to the mission of preventing HIV, particularly among people of color, including gay men and other communities impacted by HIV. Prior to joining Gilead Sciences, Mr. Burgess was the Chief of the Capacity Building Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS. In this position, he was responsible for the oversight of nearly 50 programmatic and scientific staff providing capacity building assistance to all domestic health departments and community-based organizations, representing a combined budget of nearly $50 million in funding and support. He also provided outstanding leadership in the revising and implementation of the dynamic funding awards process for Health Departments, as well as Community Based Organizations. Prior to becoming branch chief, he managed a team of Project Officers that provided oversight to $70 million in HIV Prevention programs to the West Region of the country, including Guam, Hawaii and the West coast.

He is a graduate of the University of Chicago where he received a BA in Public Policy and a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences.

Rashad serves, supports and loves Bishop and their children Caylee and Joshua Burgess-Allen.