Rev. Dr. Linda Barkwill is founder of In The Light, an interfaith ministry
honoring the body, mind and spirit connection.

Background
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Linda has lived in Southeastern Wisconsin for over 30 years.  She currently resides in Mequon with her husband, Chuck, and their Siamese cats, Isis and Lucky.

Education
After study abroad and graduation from Knox College, she went on to achieve a highly successful business career.

Business Career
Linda founded and led MarketSearch, Inc., a nationally recognized executive search firm that recruited for Fortune 100 corporations. She later served as a consultant for leading firms in the human resources outplacement industry.  During her 25 years as a business leader, she has coached more than 2,500 executives and professionals in the areas of career development, job search and life skills.

Formation of Interfaith Ministry
In 1992, In The Light was created to offer compassionate support of people and to honor the diversity of humankind.  Linda's focus on business professionals experiencing malaise in their careers and lives expanded over time to encompass the needs of all individuals and families seeking spiritual services, often those beyond the boundaries of any one religion.  She is assisted by Beth Kline, who serves as her Administrative Manager.

Preparation for Interfaith Ordination
In 1995, Linda was granted a Ph.D. in Therapeutic Counseling by the Open International University for Complementary Medicines, established by the United Nations through the World Health Organization.

Linda's early religious training started with the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, the denomination in which she was baptized and confirmed.  Before the age of 8, Linda felt a profound incongruence because her parents, both Lutherans, attended different Lutheran churches.  Her Father, a member of a Masonic Order, was not allowed to take communion at her Mother's Missouri Synod Church. 

Linda began a lifelong search to find a "bigger" truth than the one in which she had been raised.  For over 20 years, she studied and experienced the world's great faith and wisdom traditions, both exoteric and esoteric.  Eventually, she experienced what earlier mystics had penetrated before her.  The "Source," the "I Am that I Am" of the Bible, is beyond the human mind--unnamable, unspeakable and indescribable.  All faith and wisdom traditions are true at some level.  The dogmas and doctrines they espouse point in the right direction.  Yet none can encapsulate in words the numinous.  With that understanding, she discovered her own inner peace and experienced a profound desire to assist others.

Ordination
In 2001, Linda completed her training through the International Institute of Integral Human Sciences in Montreal, Canada, and was ordained as an Interfaith Minister by the SSF, an affiliate of  the International Council of Community Churches, which is a member of the World Council of Churches, and the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness.  She was also accepted into an Affiliate Relationship with the School Sisters of St. Francis, a Catholic religious order of nuns based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The Sisters have provided Linda with the loving values-based community she has been seeking since her childhood and she is very grateful.