Karen Paul
Director of Development

Karen brings over 30 years of fundraising experience to APN, including over 15 years at New Israel Fund as the Washington Regional Director, where she led all local events, programming and fundraising, as well as NIF’s study tour program. Karen’s background includes work with NARAL Pro-Choice America, Dance Theatre of Harlem, DC Vote, and dozens of organizations to whom she has offered development support through her fundraising consulting practice. Most recently, Karen was 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 terminal illness with compassion and honesty in the Washington Post and other outlets. Currently, she is working on a memoir about her experience with grief and trauma as a caretaker for a spouse with terminal brain cancer.

Karen sits on the Advisory Council of xMinds and is a Trustee of CaringMatters, both in Montgomery County, MD, and serves on the International Council of New Israel Fund. Karen graduated from Union College, and is currently pursuing an MFA in creative non-fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts.