Sharon Stauffer, the executive director of Positive Choices, took the first steps in giving back to her community when she contacted the local pregnancy center in 2015. She wasn’t sure exactly how, but she knew that she had been called to be a light for women and girls in crisis.
As an adoptive mother with over 20 years of experience with the UAB Health System as a manager/financial officer in areas of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Preventive Medicine and Radiology Research, she was a perfect fit for the ministry. Her career has included teaching at two private Christian schools at the middle school level in subject areas of math and English, as well as working as a case manager for a workforce investment program sponsored by the state of Alabama for the Birmingham Career Center. She joined Positive Choices as a counselor, and she was asked a few years later to step into the position of executive director.
Positive Choices provides free and confidential pregnancy testing, limited ultrasounds, educational programs for men and women, and consultation on the choices available to women and girls. Since joining the center, Sharon has worked to alleviate some of the social and economic barriers to safe and affordable prenatal care and motherhood, while providing a path forward for those in need.
“My passion is to help the underserved — those who are uninsured and just need our help to better their lives. Those who have a dream for their life but just need assistance or a mentor or a guide.”