Rabbi Shira Stern is a pastoral counselor and Disaster Spiritual Care provider for the American Red Cross. As the Director of the Center for Pastoral Care and Counseling in Marlboro, NJ, she works with children and adults as they focus on problem solving and personal growth. Rabbi Stern has more than 32 years of educational experience, including teaching Judaism at Rutgers University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and a Master of Arts degree from Hebrew Union College, where she was ordained a rabbi. She earned her Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Counseling from HUC-JIR in 2003. She is also a Board Certified Chaplain, and has served as a hospital, hospice and long-term care facility chaplain. Rabbi Stern's writings have been published in The Women's Torah Commentary and The Women's Haftarah Commentary, Jewish Relational Care from A-Z, and she is the consulting editor of Mishkan R’fuah, Where Healing Resides, published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. She has been a contributor and consultant for three National Geographic Books.