Karen Van Fossan is one of those people that make you feel like you’ve known them your whole life, perhaps known each other in past lives. Her service work is spread across many planes and many plains. She is at home wherever she is and makes others feel at home. Her heart runs deep, with no regard to the color of anyone else’s blood, which is profound.
Keeper of the Medicines (Sandra Bercier): Executive Director, First Nations Women's Alliance, Devils Lake, ND
Karen Van Fossan is an extraordinarily talented thinker and communicator, fluent in prophetic social analysis and spiritual discernment. She possesses the rare ability to establish rapport with people of many ages, cultures, and genders and is widely valued as a model of pastoral integrity. She embodies the ideal of the engaged public intellectual.
Dr. Peter Huff: Director, Center for Benedictine Values, Benedictine University, Lisle, IL
Karen walks alongside us in our struggles to decolonize and liberate one another from the various forms of oppression that continue to be imposed on us. Her work is that of solidarity and accompaniment. In this way, she helps facilitate healing between Peoples.
Dr. Monisha Ríos: Boricua Psychologist and Community Organizer, Borikén
Rev. Karen Van Fossan brings one of the most important voices to conversations about culture, identity, and authenticity today. Her personal relationships as an advocate for Native and Indigenous Rights allow her to bring a unique perspective to her reflections. Before, during, and after the pivotal moments of resistance at Standing Rock, she has been a force of dedication, clarity, and humility. Rev. Van Fossan helps everyone understand that the work of being an ally goes well beyond simple physical presence; it first requires showing up in one’s personal story, aware of powerful biases and habits that influence us all.
Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer: Author, PhD Candidate, and Blogger at Spirituwellness.org, Charlottesville, VA
The enduring magic of Karen Van Fossan’s Lifework is that she sustains a presence of body, mind, and heart gracefully and artfully. Her ministry is unflinchingly resolute. Her eyes never close to suffering and injustice. Her heart never shuts out joy and hope. She pulls each close to live it fully. Her life gifts each of us with glimpses of our own unique horizons and challenges us to find new ways to press toward what Maria Popova names “the fusion of presence and possibility.”
Bonnie Palecek: Co-Founder, NDCAWS (North Dakota's domestic violence coalition), Bismarck, ND