Story & Lesson Highlights with Dr. Jennifer Dean-Wiley

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Dr. Jennifer Dean-Wiley. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Jennifer, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do you think others are secretly struggling with—but never say?
“Unresolved trauma and pain.” That’s what most people are secretly struggling with, even when they don’t say it out loud. We carry it like it’s normal, call it “just how I am,” when really it’s protection. You can’t heal what you won’t name, and too many of us learned early that silence keeps us safe. But that silence becomes heavy—it leaks into our relationships, our parenting, our faith, our work. It’s the ache beneath ambition, the storm behind the smile. That’s why my work exists: to give language to what’s been buried, so people can finally put it down and live free.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Dr. Jennifer Dean-Wiley, D.Div., LPC, founder of The Jennifer Experience™—a full-spectrum healing and crisis management brand rooted in breaking generational curses and restoring identity. For years, I’ve helped people confront the hard truths: the silence, shame, and survival patterns passed down through generations. Through coaching, counseling, ministry, and community advocacy, I’ve built a space where people can heal out loud and build legacies rooted in truth, not trauma.

What makes my work different is that it bridges the spiritual, emotional, and practical. Healing isn’t just about the mind—it’s about how we live, lead, and care for one another. That’s why The Jennifer Experience™ is now expanding into senior care, tackling one of today’s most overlooked crises: the neglect of Black and Brown elders. Our new assisted living homes in Houston and the DFW area are designed to provide dignified, culturally grounded care for seniors who’ve spent their lives holding families and communities together.

It’s the same mission, just grown deeper—healing individuals, families, and now systems.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
What breaks the bonds between people is unspoken pain. The kind that goes unnamed, generation after generation. Misunderstanding turns into distance, distance turns into defense, and before long love feels unsafe. We stop talking, we stop listening, we start surviving each other instead of seeing each other.

What restores those bonds is truth—and the courage to face it together. When people start naming their pain instead of projecting it, healing begins. Accountability, honesty, and empathy are what rebuild trust. It’s not quick work, but it’s sacred work.

Because the truth is, relationships don’t fall apart from lack of love. They fall apart from lack of healing.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I’d tell her, “You were never too much—you were just in rooms that couldn’t hold your truth yet.”
I’d remind her that survival was never her identity, just her assignment for a season. That softness isn’t weakness, and silence isn’t strength.

I’d tell her she’s allowed to be seen now. Allowed to rest. Allowed to win without apology.

Because the version of me that stands here today only exists because she kept going, even when she didn’t feel chosen.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m committed to building The Jennifer Experience Assisted Living Homes—spaces designed for Black and Brown seniors who deserve to age with dignity, safety, and cultural belonging. This isn’t just a project; it’s personal legacy work. I was raised by elders whose wisdom and resilience built the foundation I stand on. Too many of them grow old without adequate care or respect, especially as current policies continue to shrink their access to the resources they need to live well. I can’t watch that and do nothing.

To bring this vision to life, I’ve partnered with two phenomenal women: Dr. Imani Phillips-Spears, an accomplished healthcare operations and compliance executive, and Alicia Grant, a Houston-based strategist and advocate whose life’s work is rooted in service and community empowerment. Together, we’re creating a model of assisted living that blends operational excellence with compassion, faith, and cultural understanding.

We plan to open three homes—independent living, assisted living, and memory care—in the Houston and DFW areas. But these three homes are just the start. Our goal is to build a sustainable network of culturally competent senior care facilities across the country—spaces that restore dignity, rebuild trust, and remind our elders that they are seen, valued, and loved.

This is more than business. It’s restoration.
It’s breaking a generational curse of neglect.
And I’ll see it through—no matter how long it takes.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I have no doubt—I was born to be a Cycle-Breaker.
Everything in my life has pointed me toward that assignment. I wasn’t meant to repeat the patterns; I was meant to reveal them, to heal them, and to help others do the same.

For a long time, I did what I was taught to do—achieve, survive, stay quiet, make it look easy. But purpose has a way of finding you, even when you try to fit into something smaller.

Today, through The Jennifer Experience™, I get to live the work I was born for: helping people break the patterns that broke generations before them. And now, that same calling is expanding into elder care—because even our seniors deserve liberation, dignity, and love in their final chapters.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Alicia V. Grant M.B.A.
The Jennifer Experience Flyer
Dr. Imani Phillips-Spears
The Jennifer Experience logo
Dr. Jennifer Dean-Wiley

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