STCL Houston First-year Student, Gospel Artist Receives Honor from State Bar of Texas

She submitted an essay in the fall to earn the recognition.

“I was delighted to receive notification of the honor and blessed to be recognized for my personal professionalism experience and its value in the legal community,” Maddoux said.

She has served as lead worship team member for Houston’s First Baptist Church since March 2021 and is founder and president of Vanessa Maddoux Ministries.

“We are so proud of Vanessa for receiving this well-deserved, statewide recognition,” said Alicia Cramer, assistant dean of admissions at STCL Houston. “She is a dedicated student and a lovely peson.”

The Oral Roberts University honors graduate has traveled the world as a professional singer, worship leader, and missions advocate — teaching workshops, directing choirs, performing in concerts, and leading teams of professional musicians to share their musical skills while sharing joyful, hopeful messages of faith.

“In fall 2022, I started a new adventure when I entered law school at South Texas,” Maddoux said. “As a non-traditional student, I recognize the uniqueness of what some people may see as ‘starting over’ in a new career later in life. However, I haven’t viewed this experience as a reset but rather as an expansion of my service to the community around me and to the world. I look forward to the opportunities I will have to grow and develop here.”

Maddoux was born in a minister’s family, where she came prepared to sing a solo for every church service from the time she was 5 years old. As a young adult, she led worship and participated in singing competitions. She was singing professionally in recording studios in Conroe and Houston by the time she was a teenager and continued performing throughout her college years.

She recorded her first solo project in 1992, then recorded “It’s My Desire to Praise Him” in 2012 and “Looking for a Miracle” in 2018. She dedicated her most recent album to the Japanese people because she has been performing regularly in Japan since 2011. For many years, she was a professional singer in Nashville, recording and performing live music events with artists from a variety of musical genres, including Wynonna Judd, Dolly Parton, Bill Gaither and the Homecoming Friends, Barry Manilow, Phil Vassar, Natalie Grant, Sonicflood, and more.

Maddoux began a full-time music and missions ministry in 2010, traveling to countries including Thailand, Japan, Ireland, Myanmar, Korea, China and Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Israel. She formed Vanessa Maddoux Ministries in 2012 along with the missions-focused nonprofit Good Deeds International.

A Texas native, Maddoux lived in Nashville from 1996 until 2021, when she moved to the Greater Houston area to be near her family and attend law school.