By Anne Ruisi
At first, the Rev. Dr. Jane N. Geiger was shocked to be named one of Positive Maturity Inc.’s Top 50 Over 50.
“I’m honored and surprised,” the Vestavia Hills native and founder of Grace Ministries Inc. said. “I am so thankful for the investment and partnership with so many individuals, couples, families, churches and companies throughout my long career in Birmingham and all over the United States.”
She and the 49 others in Positive Maturity’s 2021-22 class of Top 50 Over 50 will be honored July 21 at The Club.
Positive Maturity in Birmingham celebrates community members 50 and older “to recognize those individuals in our community who find opportunities to make a difference, become a catalyst in the world and leave it with no regrets. Our Top 50 know how to stay young through their dreams, laughter, contributions and achievements,” the organization’s website states.
The ceremony last year was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During her 31 years in the counseling field, Geiger, better known as Dr. Jane, has accomplished many business, nonprofit and personal goals. She is CEO of Grace Ministries, a nonprofit counseling and education platform with a global reach in counseling, consulting and publishing. It serves people throughout Alabama and the Southeast, across the country and even in Canada and Europe.
She founded Grace Ministries on Valentine’s Day 1996 on the second floor of an old house on Birmingham’s Southside. The goal was to provide counseling with the gospel of Christian grace for people of all faiths or no faith. She said she wanted the word “grace” in the name of the nonprofit “because when people are going through trauma, they need grace.”
In 2002, Grace Ministries moved to downtown Homewood in a space above Sikes Children’s Shoe Store. Geiger has been coming alongside her clients with encouraging support through business consulting, relationship counseling, personal coaching and family ministry while also writing her own book series along with writing for magazines, newspapers, churches and universities. As the years went by and some clients moved to Arizona, Florida and Chattanooga, she began supporting them by opening agencies in those places.
Grace Ministries became international when Geiger had clients in Canada and the Czech Republic.
Geiger would travel to reach those clients. For example, she’d go to Tampa for a week or 10 days and see clients, then return home to get her dog, Honey, and see clients in this area. Then it would be time to fly to Phoenix to see another set of clients.
When the pandemic closed Grace Ministries’ office, Geiger responded like a circuit-riding minister but with the horses under a hood.
“I’d get in my truck and go where my clients are – Chattanooga, Tuscaloosa, Selma. I just came back from a consulting job in North Carolina and came back through Georgia with a stop to consult with a nonprofit in Talladega,” she said.
“Grace Ministries Mobile Unit – that’s how I answer the phone,” she said.
When she gets home, she plays catch-up, writes and does laundry.
Mindful of COVID-19, her sessions during the pandemic, whether in the area or out of town, are held in a variety of places, such as in clients’ garages and yards and in gazebos. She brings folding chairs and a picnic basket with apples and water.
At times, counseling takes the form of what Geiger calls Healing Hiking Sessions in an outdoor setting, such as a state park or Moss Rock Preserve.
“We get fit walking side-by-side. All we need is fresh air,” she said. “If it starts raining, you just go inside a restaurant and have a cup of coffee.”
Even after the pandemic ends, Geiger said she doubts she will return to the office.
“COVID has proven you don’t need to go to a physical location,” to work, she said.
Dancing to Multiple Beats
In her career, Geiger has conducted thousands of interviews, listening to business leaders, fellow ministers, struggling couples and challenged families and helping them as an executive coach to navigate the necessary steps to overcome challenges of the pandemic. This approach to overcoming chronic change, personal pain, business losses, career challenges and other obstacles related to the pandemic is documented in her newest book, “COVID Choreography.”
“It is important to have emotional flexibility and positive resilience, the fluid ability to make chronic adjustments, and learn to dance to a nearly daily new beat as the manifestations of moving from simply surviving to thriving,” Geiger said.
During her years as a counselor, Geiger has worked with a variety of people facing a range of problems and situations. Perhaps surprisingly, one of her favorites is divorce mediation. She said she got her doctorate to be a good biblical mediator, to perform weddings and funerals and be there for the important moments in people’s lives.
Grace Ministries’ Team Grace/Dr. Jane also hosts marriage retreats several times a year.
She is a frequent college and university consultant, military mentor, diversity coach and radio show call-in guest host, with an upcoming radio show and a call-in podcast titled, “See Jane Listen.”
How does she get all of this done?
“With the help of hundreds of volunteers in many cities over several decades,” Geiger said. “My colleagues are gifted coaches and several are ordained ministers. And, those behind the scenes, our ministry partners, are priceless.”
The youngest of four children, Geiger moved from the Northeast to Vestavia Hills with her family when she was 7 years old. She attended Vestavia schools, where she had an outstanding school career, and was Miss Vestavia in 1984.
After high school, she attended the University of Alabama, where she studied business marketing and counseling education, and received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, which is given to those “who have demonstrated noble character and acted as humble servants, placing service to others before self-interest,” according to the award’s website.
At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she was president of the Student Counseling Association and earned a master’s degree, summa cum laude, in counseling.
She also has a doctor of ministry degree in spiritual formation from Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio.
Grace Ministries can be found at WritersCupofGrace.com.
