Karma Kitaj (pronounced “key-tie”), wrote and published Women Who Could…and Did, an inspirational book about high-achieving women after contacting 35 agents and publishers who said it didn’t fit their lists. (click here to read Karma’s story, “Adventure in Self-Publishing”). Now she’s writing another book about famous equestriennes from barrel racers to Olympic jumpers to jockeys. She traveled to remote ranches in Colorado, Texas, Hawaii, California, and Florida to seek out the women who best represent each riding discipline, a thrill for an equestrienne wannabe.

Not a risk-taker, Karma started riding horses at age fifty even though she never played sports as a kid, because she didn’t like to sweat. Now she works out three times a week to stay safe on horses and to be fit and healthy (click here to read “Karma Fulfills Dream of Learning to Ride a Horse at Age 50.”)

Inspired to improve her public speaking after criticism of a presentation years ago, Karma turned that into a challenge. She joined Toastmasters International, went to Speakers School at the National Speakers’ Association, then hired a consultant who video-taped and critiqued her speaking style. Trained to lead groups, she now engages audiences with personal stories, interactive exercises to promote change, and vignettes about the people in her books.

A life-long learner, she went back to graduate school in her forties and got a PhD, remembering her 101 year old grandmother asking her “when are you going to finish your studies?” even though she already had her Master’s degree in social work. Karma continues to seek out learning adventures, some aimed toward healing and energizing the people she works with, some to inspire and strengthen herself.

Karma spent five years as a Visiting Research Scholar at the Wellesley College Centers for Women in the 1990s while she was doing the research that led to her first book. One of her peak experiences as a college student was writing papers at the end of the semester, cloistered high up in the library stacks at the University of Michigan. Being at Wellesley College decades later triggered those wonderful memories.