About the Russell Kirk Center

Meet Jeffrey O. Nelson, Executive Director & CEO

Jeffrey O. Nelson is Co-Founder of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal with Annette Y. Kirk.

Prior to his executive director role with the Kirk Center, Jeff held senior leadership or board of trustee roles for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) for three decades, most recently overseeing ISI’s national educational program as its Chief Academic Officer.

A Michigan native, Jeff grew up west of Detroit and spent much of his youth in Russell Kirk’s native town of Plymouth. He holds a B.A. from the University of Detroit, a M.A.R. from Yale University Divinity School, and he earned his Ph.D. in American history from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. His dissertation was on Edmund Burke and America.

During his undergraduate years in Detroit, Jeff discovered ISI, founded a chapter, brought in speakers, and attended Piety Hill seminars in Mecosta. He became one of Russell Kirk’s literary assistants after graduating. He also met and eventually married Cecilia Kirk, Dr. Kirk’s second daughter. They have three children: Isabel, Thomas, and Julia. 

Jeff is the founding editor and publisher of ISI Books—a book imprint that has published some of the most consequential conservative titles over the past twenty-five years. He was also editor of The Intercollegiate Review: A Journal of Scholarship and Opinion and was privileged to work with the distinguished Georgetown University political theorist, George W. Carey, as executive editor of The Political Science Reviewer. From 1995-2005, he was editor of the Center’s flagship publication, The University Bookman, and currently serves as its publisher and editor at large.

Prior to working at ISI, Jeff was an early employee at the Acton Institute. He served as president of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. He is a founder and treasurer of the Edmund Burke Society of America and publisher of the Society’s journal, Studies in Burke and His Time. He also served as general editor of The Library of Modern Thinkers book series. 

As ISI’s Senior Vice President, Educational Program, Jeff directed ISI’s American Universities and the Principles of Liberty (AUPL) partnership with Liberty Fund, Inc., bringing students and professors together for high quality Socratic-style seminars, and he designed a six-course Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) curriculum that explored dimensions of liberty. He led a talented program team that together increased year-over-year student membership by 83%, organized more than 150 on-campus events, built a network of more than 135 student groups and 65 independent student newspapers, and awarded fellowships to 40 undergraduate Honors Scholars and 16 graduate students. He also oversaw the growth of ISI’s faculty network to almost 5000 members nationwide, one of the largest faculty networks of its kind. 

Jeff has been recognized by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) as a leader in educational reform and college guidance for students in search of a genuine liberal arts education and is a member of its Conservative Education Reform Network (CERN). He was project editor of the Templeton Foundation’s Honor Rolls for Education in a Free Society, general editor of ISI’s popular Guides to the Major Disciplines series, and creator and project editor for ISI’s best-selling college guide, Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America’s Top Schools. 

Jeff is the editor of several books, including two books by Russell Kirk, Redeeming the Time and The Political Principles of Robert A. Taft. He co-edited American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, and edited books by mentors of his such as Perfect Sowing: Reflections of a Bookman by Henry Regnery and Remembered Past by John Lukacs.

He and Cecilia live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.