David Solomon, Ph.D.
W.P. and H.B. White Director

David Solomon is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame and the founding director of the Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and has held academic positions at Boston University, Baylor University, and Oxford University. Professor Solomon's main research interests are contemporary moral theory and medical ethics. More.

Daniel McInerny, Ph.D.
Associate Director

Daniel McInerny joined us in the fall of 2003 as an associate director. After earning his PhD in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1994, Dan taught for eight years at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, the last two years of which he served as chair of the department and director of the Center for Thomistic Studies. Dan does work in Thomistic ethics and natural law theory, as well as in questions dealing with the ethical dimensions of literature. His book, The Difficult Good: A Thomistic Approach to Moral Conflict and Human Happiness, appeared from Fordham University Press in the summer of 2006. For more information on that volume, go here. As an associate director of the Center, he assists David Solomon in the Center's main administrative tasks: fundraising, conference planning and publications. He also teaches as a concurrent professional specialist in Notre Dame's Philosophy Department. Dan and his wife, Amy, have three children, Lucy, Rita, and Francis.

Elizabeth Kirk, J.D.
Associate Director

Elizabeth Kirk joined us in August of 2005 and currently serves as Associate Director.  She is also the faculty advisor for the undergraduate Notre Dame Right to Life club and for the Notre Dame Identity Project.  She began her law career in 1996 in Chicago, Illinois, first working in the areas of estate planning, probate, and trust litigation and later providing general litigation counsel to various educational, religious and not-for-profit organizations. She clerked for the Honorable Daniel A. Manion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 2000-2002.  During the 2002-2003 academic year, she taught at The Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and thereafter served as an assistant professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law until joining the Center.  Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Juris Doctor with high honors from Notre Dame Law School.  Elizabeth and her husband, Bill, live in South Bend, Indiana with their two sons, William and Benedict.

Kathryn Wales

Program Coordinator

Kathryn Wales joined us in January of 2009 after teaching New Testament and Apologetics in the Theology Department at St. Joseph's High School for three semesters. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pittsburgh where she designed her own major entitled Roman Catholic Studies. As Program Coordinator of the Center, Kathryn assists David Solomon and the rest of the Center staff in many administrative duties such as overseeing the work of the undergraduate assistants, editing the Ethics and Culture newsletter, researching for and organizing the students' association (coming fall 2009). She and her husband Jordan, a PhD student in Theology here at Notre Dame, live in South Bend, Indiana.

Tracy Westlake
Administrative Assistant

Tracy Westlake graduated from Ball State University with a degree in Business Education. She has been at Notre Dame since 1994 and joined the Center shortly after its founding in the summer of 1999. Tracy and her husband, Chris, have two children, Eric (13) and Susi (10).