Mom, Executive Director and Business Owner Anna Burnett

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — Vicksburg’s Anna Burnett owns two businesses, is the executive director of Haven House, and has two young boys.

A product of Vicksburg, Burnett was born at Mercy Hospital and attended Bowmar, South Park and Warren Central High School. After graduating from Mississippi State University, Burnett worked at a car rental company, sold insurance, managed real estate properties and, in February 2015, began working at Haven House as its outreach coordinator.

In 2021, Burnett, along with Roosevelt Brown and Pierson Waring, opened The Sandlot of Vicksburg. The Sandlot provides training to kids across Warren County to help them succeed in the sports they love.

“After two years of tournament baseball, I wanted to give the ballplayers who live in Vicksburg the same opportunities that kids outside of Vicksburg have with indoor facilities and lessons,” Burnett said.

The Sandlot currently supports four teams and is open to anyone who wants to sign up for lessons. It currently has about 100 people using its services.

In June 2022, Burnett and her partners bought Staffing Solutions, a longstanding employment agency in Vicksburg.

“Staffing Solutions is an employment agency that finds jobs for people who are looking for jobs and kind of an HR service for businesses in the community,” Burnett said. “We can help with hiring. It can be one employee, it can be 500 employees. You can do temp-to-hire, you can do all temp, or you can do a direct hire.”

Burnett took over as acting director of Haven House in February and has just been announced as the permanent executive director. Haven House board president Oneka Washington said in a news release, “The board of directors is excited about the direction Haven House is going and couldn’t be happier as this year Haven House is celebrating 40 years of serving Vicksburg-Warren County and surrounding communities.”

Burnett officially takes over May 1. As executive director, she will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the shelter, including building relationships with stakeholders, overseeing the organization, managing staff, developing fundraising strategies and “keeping Haven House a continued shining light in the community.”

“Haven House is a domestic violence shelter here in Vicksburg,” Burnett said. “It is for any victim of domestic violence — not just physical violence. Mental, emotional, financial. We help families that are victims and provide outreach that includes counseling, case management, court advocacy and all their basic needs.”

In addition to her full business schedule and community service, Burnett recently completed her last year with the Junior Auxiliary of Vicksburg. She is mom to Nick, 9, and Drake, 12.

“I like to spend time with my family. We like to travel and went to Disney last year and Panama City,” Burnett said with a big smile. “We go to Crawford Street United Methodist Church. I was brought up there.”

When asked what she does in her free time, Burnett joked, “What is free time?!”