Karen Paul is the principal of Catalyzing Philanthropy, a boutique fundraising and development consultancy. Karen was also Washington Director of New Israel Fund and Executive Director of the Tikkun Olam Women’s Foundation, where she was dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in the DC region and in Israel.

Karen and her late husband, Jonathan Stern, received the Heschel Visionary Award from Jews United for Justice in 2016 for their dedication to telling the story of his illness with compassion and honesty. Currently, she is working on a book about her experience with grief and trauma as a caretaker for a spouse with terminal brain cancer. She blogs regularly on her own site, “Life in the (Widow) Hood,” and has had essays, short stories and poems published in the Washington Post, Lilith Magazine, S’hma, Guideposts, Seltzer, Modern Loss, Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine, Scribblers on the Roof, and Heartscapes anthology.