32nd Annual Dinner

Prior to her State Department appointment, Ms. Kissel was a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, where she served as chief foreign policy writer and host of the Foreign Edition podcast, and as editorial page editor for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. She has appeared on major television and radio networks and podcasts around the world, including Australian Broadcasting Corp., CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, and Sky News. In addition to her WSJ work, her writing has been published in The Spectator and the Far Eastern Economic Review. She started her career in the fixed-income division of Goldman Sachs in New York and London.

Ms. Kissel is currently a member of the board of directors of XPO Logistics Inc. and serves as an advisory board member of the Center for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue and the Marathon Initiative in Washington, D.C. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and host of the Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security. Ms. Kissel is a graduate of Harvard College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The Institute publishes scholarship and film and organizes educational seminars around the world for current and future religious leaders across denominations promoting an understanding of the ethical dimensions of the free market economy.  The Institute also works with business leaders, helping them to embrace their work as a worthy calling and to encourage their positive moral defense of a free society characterized by individual liberty and personal moral responsibility.  Since its inception in 1990, The Acton Institute has experienced tremendous growth and today employs more than 50 people with an annual budget of $12,000,000.

Kris is a Seattle native and the youngest of 8 children.  After graduating with an economics and international relations degree from Johns Hopkins University, Kris settled in Grand Rapids to help found Acton Institute.  In his role as executive director, Kris has traveled the world, lecturing and consulting in dozens of countries.  He is widely recognized as a leader in non-profit management and consults regularly on best practices in governance, management, measurement and evaluation, and fundraising in the not for profit sector.  In 2010 he was presented with the Charles G. Koch Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Institute for Humane Studies, and was the 1999 recipient of the Liberty Executive Award for Outstanding Non-Profit Management.  Kris serves as a director or as an advisory board member for a number of institutions, including Donors Capital Fund, Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and Templeton Religion Trust and Excel Charter Academy.  Kris is active in a number of community organizations including the Economics Club of Grand Rapids, Rotary International, and The Philadelphia Society.

His writings on religious, political, economic, and social matters are published in a variety of journals, including: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the London Financial Times, the Washington Times, the Detroit News, and National Review. Fr. Sirico is often called upon by members of the broadcast media for statements regarding economics, civil rights, and issues of religious concern, and has provided commentary for CNN, ABC, the BBC, NPR, and CBS' 60 Minutes, among others.

Fr. Sirico received his Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic University of America following undergraduate study at the University of Southern California and the University of London. During his studies and early ministry, he experienced a growing concern over the lack of training religious studies students receive in fundamental economic principles, leaving them poorly equipped to understand and address today's social problems. As a result of these concerns, Fr. Sirico co-founded the Acton Institute with Kris Alan Mauren in 1990.

In April of 1999, Fr. Sirico was awarded an honorary doctorate in Christian Ethics from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and in May of 2001, Universidad Francisco Marroquin awarded him an honorary doctorate in Social Sciences. He is a member of the prestigious Mont Pèlerin Society, the American Academy of Religion, and the Philadelphia Society, and is on the Board of Advisors of the Civic Institute in Prague. Father Sirico also served on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1994 to 1998. His pastoral ministry has included a chaplaincy to AIDS patients at the National Institutes of Health. He is the Pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Father Sirico holds dual Italian and American citizenship.