Born and raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Karen Simms Tolson is an educator and spiritual director with state and national experience in program development on equity issues. A graduate of the San Francisco Theological Seminary program in spiritual direction, she has presented at the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Università degli Studi di Siena, and the Thirtieth Anniversary Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Collège de Sorbonne. She is an active member and volunteer in several organizations dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion.