Karen Kornmiller
Karen was born in Logan, Ohio, in 1943. Although her parents weren’t Christians when she was young, Karen learned about God through her grandmother. While majoring in education at Ohio University, Karen began attending a Nazarene church. She was saved in November 1962. Soon after, she felt called by God to missionary service—specifically to Native Americans.
When Karen looked into the Church of the Nazarene’s missionary activity, she found they didn’t have any teaching ministries for Native Americans. Undeterred, she started looking at other denominations. The Churches of Christ in Christian Union, a sister organization to WGM, was able to point her toward WGM’s American Indian Field. At the time, Karen was teaching English and Spanish at Logan High School and working on her master’s degree in education. In April of 1974, she was given a full appointment to Peoria, Arizona, to teach at Southwest Indian School, a boarding school for Native American children.
After retiring from WGM, she went on to teach English at Hocking College (Ohio) from 2002 to 2013.