About Jane

Kirsty and Kelly sharing a laugh, coffee and working on Janes-List.com

Jane’s List is a professional and social network for brave women who empower brave men. We’re bringing you news, advice and lifehacks to help your careers, relationships and personal growth.

By the time I was 10 and embarked on writing the next novel in the Gone With the Wind series, I knew I wanted to be a writer.

By the time I was 18 I knew I wanted to be a PR professional.

I graduated magna cum laude with a degree in communication and dreamt of bright lights and big cities.

And that was when I let fate take over.

I met my future husband at a graduation party for my sister’s high school sweetheart. He was my sister’s boyfriend’s Marine recruiter. We started dating that summer and as fate would have it, I quickly found a job where he was based, at one of the leading ad agencies in Southwest Florida.

When Rob’s time as a recruiter was up, he was transferred to North Carolina to be the new Public Affairs Chief for a unit in Camp Lejeune. As with so many military families, we were married for only a year and faced a move, a job change and a deployment all at once. I worked hard and ended up finding the best PR job in Wilmington and built an amazing network that helped me to endure my first deployment (and Rob’s second) to Afghanistan last year.

All the time I was wishing and hoping that someday I could build a resource for women like me – constantly trolling the Internet for information about how to cope with deployments or how to find a job in military markets where work is scant. So in 2009 I partnered with a like-minded friend to create Jane’s List, the professional and lifestyle network for working women married to men in the military.

On Jane’s List, my specialty is crafting career advice that will help you get ahead, sharing tried and true lifehacks that will make your life easier and offering tips to integrate and optimize technology in your life.

So, while I confess that Gone With the Wind novel never got finished, I’m proud to be a writer today – and a writer who can make a difference at that.

A self-described “Jill-of-all-trades”, I am as proficient with a power drill as I am planning a wedding, changing the oil in my car, distressing furniture, planning a dinner party for 20 and house-training my dog.  In fact, being married to a man in the military, it is almost a requirement to be able to do all of these things, sometimes simultaneously.

After graduating magna cum laude with a dual Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing and Spanish and minors in Economics and Finance, I embarked on a career in sales and finance, ultimately making a U-turn along the way and finding my true calling in marketing and public relations.

Prior to co-founding Jane’s List, I honed my sales skills as an account manager for a consulting firm in Philadelphia, PA and then became the first female Senior Finance and Lending Consultant to work for a financial firm in Wilmington, N.C.  After five years as a top producer, I decided to test my skills in PR and obtained a position as Business Development Coordinator for a top branding and communications firm.  Although my ultimate responsibility was to identify new business opportunities, I also wrote press releases, pitched reporters and acquired tons of media coverage for clients.

None of these positions came easily, and, in fact, I had to aggressively pursue each and every one.  I am proof positive that, despite living near military towns with little or no industry, there is hope for professional, experienced military wives and you don’t always have to settle for a job you despise.  My goal at Jane’s List is to provide the most up-to-date resources for professional military wives-the kind of resources that were not available to me when I needed them.  Enjoy!

Star News, April 2009, “Military wives create their own social networking site”

WWAY-TV3, April 2009, “Websites AskPatty.com and Janes-List.com just for women”

Changing a tire or using a power drill doesn’t have to be “a man’s job.” AskPatty.com and Janes-List.com are two websites that may have the woman in the house changing the oil.

See the Video >>

Jacksonville Daily News, May 2009, “Supporting military spouses”

Military wives Kirsty Piper and Kelly Stivers want to support “Brave women who empower brave men.”

The pair launched a Web site in March, Janes-List.com, in hopes of accomplishing that goal. While Piper and Stivers both work in the public relations field in Wilmington, their spouses are stationed in Jacksonville at Camp Lejeune.

The social and professional resource site includes articles and blog posts covering topics from personal finance and career advice to recipe and deployment care package ideas.

Read More >>