Rabbi Karen Soria was ordained from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1981. She served as the first female rabbi in Australia from ordination through 1989, when she returned to the States. She served two part-time congregations in Florida before joining the US Navy as a chaplain in 1992. After 11 ½ years in the US military, she left and moved to British Columbia. Since 2003, she has lived in BC, MB, and ON. She presently resides near Kingston, ON, and serves its Beth Israel Congregation as well as Winnipeg’s Temple Shalom. She attended the second Morei Derekh Spiritual Direction cohort from 2004-2006 and was certified by Morei Derekh as a Spiritual Director.