Elizabeth Kirk, J.D.

Elizabeth Kirk is the Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person and a research associate at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. She writes and speaks on matters pertaining to the family in law, policy, and the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition, and 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. She has been a guest on various radio & TV programs.

Elizabeth previously served as Director and Kowalski Chair of Catholic Thought at the Institute for Faith and Culture at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas (2019-2020), as associate director of the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture (2005-2011), and as a resident fellow in cultural and legal studies at the Stein Center for Social Research at Ave Maria University (2012-16). 

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 formerly served as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Committee under Archbishop Joseph Naumann. She serves on numerous boards including the Catholic Bar Association and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.