Career
She was the first full-time female rabbi and the first Conservative female rabbi in Alabama. Culpeper was working as a nurse in San Francisco General Hospital when she accidentally contracted Human Immunodeficiency Virus due to a needle stick, and was diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus in 1995. She died of in 2005. After revealing her diagnosis, her congregation rallied around her, insisting she continue to work, and wearing red awareness ribbons, but in 1997 she gave up her position and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where she could get "cutting edge" treatment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham"s research clinic.
Culpeper spoke about to Jewish communities throughout America.
However, she did not want to be known as "the rabbi".
