Jan Gartner

Associate Director, Office of Church Staff Finances

Office of Church Staff Finances in Ministries and Faith Development

Headshot of Jan Gartner, a white woman with short dark hair and bluish-purple rimmed glasses, wearing a blue, green, and white patterned top. The background is outdoor greenery. Jan is smiling.

Jan is passionate about helping congregations live their values within their walls! Her work is inspired by the mission of the UUA Office of Church Staff Finances: Guided by Unitarian Universalist values, we equip congregations for excellence as employers and their staff for financial competence and well-being.

Jan helps coordinate the work of Church Staff Finances, oversees the Compensation Team, and helps congregational leaders and staff with a wide variety of employment-related matters. She is the primary author of the monthly publication, Compensation and Staffing News. She serves on the Transitions Plus Team.

Special interests include productive professional transitions, robust staff teams, economic sustainability of congregations, and Polarity Thinking. Jan’s 2019 sabbatical project is entitled, Reimagining for Resilience: Evolving Reflections on Congregational Staffing and More.

Jan joined the UUA staff in 2011, moving to the Office of Church Staff Finances after 5 years in the Professional Development Office. A Credentialed Religious Educator, Jan previously worked in religious education at the congregational and district levels and served as a Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA) Good Officer and Board member. She strives to bring all of the skills and sensibilities of an educator to her current role!

Jan telecommutes from her home near Rochester, NY, where she lives with her husband, Mike. They have three young-adult children. Jan is an avid walker, a lover of word and number puzzles, and an enthusiastic soprano in the First Unitarian Church of Rochester choir.