Elizabeth Kirk

Elizabeth Kirk is a scholar, writer and national speaker on matters pertaining to the family in law, policy and the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition. She has a special interest in adoption law and policy. She also provides strategic guidance, such as legislative analysis, on related matters to policy leaders and legislators.

Her work has appeared in various publications including Public Discourse, First Things, National Review Online, The National Catholic Register, The Washington Examiner and Aleteia, and she is invited frequently to present papers at universities and in other venues. She has been a guest on various radio & TV programs.

From 2005-2011, Elizabeth served as associate director of the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture and from 2012-2016 served as a resident fellow in cultural and legal studies at the Stein Center for Social Research at Ave Maria University.

Elizabeth has a demonstrated commitment to promoting the dignity of human life, having served in various capacities with pro-life institutions and ministries for over twenty years. Most notably, in 2010, along with University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Director David Solomon, Elizabeth founded the Vita Institute, an intensive interdisciplinary training program for leaders in the national and international pro-life movement.

Elizabeth has also practiced law, clerked for a federal appellate court judge (the Honorable Daniel A. Manion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit) and taught law (at The Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan).

She holds a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from University of Notre Dame Law School and a bachelor’s degree in English literature, cum laude, from the University of Missouri.

Elizabeth is a member of the Catholic Women’s Forum at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a board member and secretary of The Sycamore Trust, and a member of The Catholic Bar Association.

She resides in Kansas with her husband and four children.