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 (11), Rita (9), and Francis (6).

Elizabeth Kirk, J.D.
Associate Director

Elizabeth Kirk joined us in August of 2005 from Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she has been an assistant professor since 2003.  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 then clerked for Judge Daniel A. Manion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 2000-2002, and taught at The Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C during the 2002-2003 academic year.  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.  She is on leave from Ave Maria while she serves as an associate director for the Center.  Elizabeth and her husband, Bill, 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 (11) and Susi (8).