WASHINGTON, DC - September 29, 2008 

 

Today, Culture of Life Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Kimball announced that Professor Helen Alvaré, J.D., Professor of Law at George Mason University, and Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity, joins the Culture of Life Foundation as Senior Fellow for Law.   

Professor Alvare will lead the organization's research, outreach and programs in the areas of marriage, family, children and religion. 

  

"I am delighted to be affiliated with the Culture of Life Foundation.
The Foundation is making a very real contribution to our nation by rigorously exploring fundamental moral questions about human rights, respect for life and the well-being of families, among other things. I see my role as helping more citizens understand the rapid changes that are now taking place in the laws governing marriage and family in the United States. In the current environment, lawmakers have got to hear from citizens if the family is to continue to be the primary building block of a culture of life."  Helen Alvaré.
 

Helen Alvaré, J.D. is an Associate Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia. There she teaches and publishes in the areas of property law, family law, and Catholic social thought. From 2000 to Spring, 2008, Professor Alvaré taught at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law.  Professor Alvaré also lectures widely in the United States and Europe on matters concerning marriage, family and respect for human life. She is a consultant to ABC News and to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Marriage and Pro-Life Committees.  In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named Professor Alvaré a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.  Professor Alvaré is Senior Law Fellow of the Culture of Life Foundation.
 
From 1987-2000, Professor Alvaré was an attorney with the USCCB's General Counsel Office and director of information and planning for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. In these positions, she testified before the U.S. Congress and before the political platform committees of the Democratic and Republican parties. She also lobbied the U.S. Congress and drafted amicus briefs for the United States Supreme Court, as well as appearing regularly on national television and radio programs.   Prior to 1987, Professor Alvaré spent three years as a litigation associate at the Philadelphia law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens and Young.  She received her juris doctorate from Cornell University in 1984 and her masters degree in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America in 1989.

 

"The Culture of Life Foundation is very excited and indeed very blessed to have Professor Alvare on board with us.  Her vision for America, for a cultural renewal in areas of marriage and family and for the need for stronger lay organization and leadership, embodies what we understand to be the very vision His Holiness John Paul II - The Great - had for the Culture of Life Foundation when he blessed its initiation."  Jennifer Kimball, Executive Director.