Elizabeth Kirk, J.D.

Elizabeth R. Kirk is an Assistant Professor at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, where she also serves as Co-Director of its Center for Law and the Human Person.

Elizabeth’s scholarship focuses on law and the family, including issues such as parental rights, reproductive technologies, abortion jurisprudence, and child welfare and adoption. She also explores the relationship, both complementary and contrasting, between the Catholic intellectual tradition and law.

Her work has been published by the Notre Dame Law Review (forthcoming), the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics, as well as by The Institute for Family Studies, Humanum, Public Discourse, and First Things.

Elizabeth previously served as a law clerk for Judge Daniel A. Manion on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She holds an undergraduate degree cum laude in English Literature from the University of Missouri, a law degree magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and has done graduate studies in theology.

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 (2012-2016).

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. She served as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Committee under Archbishop Joseph Naumann.