In September of 1973, a young girl celebrating her 16th birthday flew from India to America to begin an academic journey at Our Lady of Angels College. Today, that girl is the Reverend Dr. Asha George-Guiser, an Episcopal priest and licensed marriage and family therapist.

Oddly, the spark that ignited a life of service and spirituality was a poster on a bulletin board at a local hospital.

At 15, Asha George was the valedictorian of her class at St. Anne’s High School in Kerala, India. The nuns at the school recognized her talent and suggested that she continue her education in the States. George’s sister, who was working at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, saw a promotional poster for Our Lady of Angels there and drove to campus to inquire about Asha’s enrolling.

Sr. Theodore Klingseisen, the dean of students, provided an application, the nuns at St. Anne’s sent transcripts and a glowing letter of recommendation, and George soon received the news that she had been awarded “a full ride for four years.” During those years as a science major, she worked in the library and the Child Development Center to earn spending-money and pay for textbooks.

Residence halls at Neumann were still decades away, so George commuted every day from West Philadelphia where she lived with a Lutheran pastor who was her student visa sponsor. The commute involved the Frankford El, a train to Media, and a shuttle to campus.

She graduated at 19 in 1977 (the university’s first under-20 graduate) and applied to medical schools. Her dream was to become a doctor, and she was “crushed” when she was not accepted. She began working with her pastor and soon discovered that ministry was her true mission.

Her explanation of the transition from medicine to ministry is an elegant quote from Presbyterian minister and writer, Frederick Buechner: “When the gladness of your heart intersects with the needs of the world, you have found your true calling.”

George continued to pursue her calling, earning a Master of Divinity degree at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1982 and a Doctor of Ministry in marriage and family therapy at Eastern University in 1994. She was the first Asian woman ordained in the Lutheran church and is now an Episcopal priest. Since 2003, she has been a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her areas of expertise include intimacy and relationship–building, cross–cultural relationships, and integrating Christian spiritual and emotional issues.

In 1984, she married her husband, Kim Guiser, who is also a priest. Since 2019, they have been serving together at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania.

George-Guiser calls raising their daughter, Preeya, “a fundamental and profound experience,” adding that “she has taught me more than any academic setting.”

She confesses that “my heart has the Franciscan spirit of solidarity with the poor” even as she appreciates the other faith traditions in her life: Syrian Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopal, and Ignatian (at an eight-day silent retreat each June).

She describes herself as a combination of Franciscan service, Episcopal inclusivity, and Ignatian spirituality. The mix has helped her be a better priest and therapist.

“My diverse experience has taught me to help people move from desolation to consolation,” she says. In a 2022 podcast, she acknowledged that everyone suffers but expressed the firm belief that “our hearts are bigger than our wounds.” Her goal is to allow her clients “to transform their suffering rather than transmit it.”

Even after 43 years in ministry, she is humble about her extraordinary life journey, remembering with humor its seemingly random origin: “There was a little poster, and here I am.”