Karen Stern, SHF, D.Min. ’82 was born Jacqueline Frances Stern on May 29, 1930, in Spokane, Washington. She entered the Sisters of the Holy Family from the city’s St. Francis of Assisi Parish on Jan. 6, 1956, at the age of 25. Sister Karen served in catechetical ministry and day homes in the Dioceses of Oakland, San Francisco, and Nevada until her sisters called her to serve in congregational leadership. Sister Karen served as councilor from 1979 to 1983 and was elected president of the congregation in 1983, a position she held until 1991. After a sabbatical, Sister Karen went to Park City, Utah, in 1992, where she served as a pastoral associate until 2002. She returned to California that year, and in 2004 moved to the motherhouse in Fremont, where she was active in Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement, and also worked tirelessly as a volunteer at Washington Hospital in Fremont. Sister Karen died peacefully at the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Fremont on Feb. 18, 2018. She was 87 years old.