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Nancy M. Zirkin

Nancy M. Zirkin is the executive vice president and director of policy at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund. Ms. Zirkin has long been active in issues involving civil rights. Since 1971 she has worked to advocate public policy that improves the lives of all people by promoting civil and constitutional rights and equity in education and in the workplace for women and girls. Her efforts to advance civil rights have included grassroots organizing, lobbying members of Congress and state legislators, and personally supporting candidates who believe in equal opportunity and fair treatment for all Americans.

In September 2002, Ms. Zirkin became deputy director/director of public policy for The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. In 2008, she became the executive vice president for The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund. Ms. Zirkin leads the coalition’s congressional lobbying efforts in the defense and promotion of civil and constitutional rights and liberties. She directs, manages, formulates, and coordinates The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund’s public policy, communications/media strategy, and grassroots strategy. Ms. Zirkin has overseen the expansion of both organizations’ public policy department in order to more effectively promote the policy goals of The Leadership Conference and its member organizations.

Before coming to The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund, Ms. Zirkin served as director of public policy and government relations for the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a 150,000 member national organization. She directed, managed, and coordinated the implementation of AAUW’s public policy agenda in Congress and the executive branch by overseeing the legislative, grassroots, and coalition efforts on AAUW priority issues, including civil rights, education, reproductive choice, and work place issues. As well as having been AAUW’s chief lobbyist, in 1995 she created and directed the AAUW Voter Education Campaign, which reached more than one million women voters during the 2000 election.

Ms. Zirkin’s efforts for the advancement of women began when she worked in the women’s rights division for the Muskie for President Campaign. Since that time, she has worked on various issues, elections, and voter education campaigns advocating improving the lives of women and girls. From 1980 to 1985 Ms. Zirkin held a number of positions at AAUW including: coordinator of the ERA ratification campaign and of the Women’s Vote Project. She left AAUW in 1985 to work in the private sector. She returned to AAUW in 1989 as the Campaign for Choice coordinator, and became director of public policy and government relations in 1992.

While in the private sector, Ms. Zirkin was executive vice president of Harry D. Myerberg Associated Companies, Inc., in Baltimore, Maryland. She directed all aspects relating to the operation and administration of companies responsible for the property management of approximately 2,000 HUD insured apartments in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Annapolis, Maryland.

As a volunteer, Ms. Zirkin served for over seven years on the executive board of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a bi-partisan organization dedicated to electing pro-choice women to office. She was also on the board of directors of the Women’s Leadership Forum and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association and is active in several community-based projects.

In addition, Zirkin was appointed to the Woodrow Wilson Center board of directors by President William J. Clinton in 1998, and to the United States Institute of Peace board of directors by President George W Bush in 2008.

Nancy is married to Harold Zirkin, an investment adviser in Bethesda, Maryland. They have four children and nine grandchildren.

Last updated May 30, 2013