About the Russell Kirk Center
for Cultural Renewal
Advancing the Permanent Things at Every Turn
The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal is dedicated to the intellectual formation of young men and women who aspire to redeem the time through educational programs based at its historic site and independent library in Mecosta, Michigan. Named for the prominent historian and man of letters, Russell Kirk, the Center builds upon his scholarship to foster a conservative disposition that rejects ideological dogma in favor of general principles, experience, and a formed moral imagination. It aims to give each new generation access to the beliefs, practices, and institutions that are the foundation of America’s Judeo-Christian tradition and of its constitutional achievement in ordered liberty.
Our mission is rooted in reverence for the Permanent Things—those timeless principles and moral norms that uphold the family, church, private property, schools, and the social bonds and associations that, as Edmund Burke wrote, hold us together in a partnership between the living, the dead, and those yet to be born.
As Kirk put it:
There are certain permanent things in society: the health of the family, inherited political institutions that insure a measure of order and justice and freedom, a life of diversity and independence, a life marked by widespread possession of private property. These permanent things guarantee against arbitrary interference by the state. These are all aspects of conservative thought, which have developed gradually as the debate since the French Revolution has gone on.
It is the work of the Kirk Center to strengthen the Permanent Things, especially as they relate to America’s tradition of order, justice, and freedom.
The Center is located at Russell Kirk’s ancestral home in Mecosta, Michigan. It hosts seminars, research, and fellowship opportunities in what is now a unique residential library and conference center. These activities, rooted in one of American conservatism’s historic places, constitute a lively educational community at the core of the Center’s mission. From here, our Kirk on Campus initiative supports programs that bring Kirk’s ideas and the tradition he represents to the rising generation at our colleges and universities. Our School of Conservative Studies provides high-quality courses and opportunities for intellectual formation to people from around the world who want an education in the best tradition of conservatism. Through The University Bookman and our new publishing imprint, Mecosta House, as well as other resources online, we engage a wide variety of people in our mission of renewing the culture.
Since its founding in 1995, the Kirk Center has enjoyed a national and international reputation for linking together generations past and present in an educational journey to discover and nourish the roots of America’s political, cultural, and economic order.
Through its residential, on-campus, and online programs, the Kirk Center explores the means by which our patrimony of culture may be preserved and renewed. In these ways the Center continues Russell Kirk’s own efforts to enrich our understanding of the Permanent Things that maintain and nurture America’s civil social order.
We hope you will join the wide network of friends that make the Russell Kirk Center an intellectually exciting and vibrant community, and visit us often.
Meet Governor John Engler, Board Chairman
John Engler, Chairman
Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal
John M. Engler is a nationally respected statesman, policy leader, and institutional steward whose career in public service and civic leadership reflects a deep commitment to ordered liberty, economic vitality, and responsible self-government.
Engler served as Governor of Michigan for three consecutive terms (1991–2003), becoming one of the longest-serving governors in the state’s history. His tenure was marked by major reforms in taxation, education, welfare, and economic development, as well as a sustained effort to strengthen Michigan’s competitiveness in a changing global economy. He is also a key figure in establishing charter schools in the state and around the country, signing the Michigan Charter Schools Act in 1994 to introduce public school choice. His creative and imaginative approach to education reform effectively broke traditional district monopolies and fostered innovation through competition and by offering educational alternatives and accountability. It has been a lasting public policy success.
Widely regarded as a principled reformer, Engler brought fiscal discipline and long-term thinking to state government during a period of significant transition.
Engler’s history with the Kirk family goes back to the very beginnings of his consequential political career. He was born in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, and grew up in nearby Beal City. Prior to his election as governor, Engler served in the Michigan Senate, where he rose to become Senate Majority Leader in 1984. In that role, Engler represented Mecosta and the Kirks, which began a long, continuous friendship that has come full circle today. While serving in the legislature, Engler also earned his Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, exemplifying a commitment to intellectual preparation alongside public duty.
After leaving the governor’s office, Engler continued his leadership on the national stage. From 2005 to 2011, he served as President and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, advocating for policies that strengthened American industry and expanded opportunity. He later became President of Business Roundtable in 2011, leading the organization until his retirement in 2017. Under his stewardship, Business Roundtable reinforced its reputation as a credible, research-driven voice for an economy that serves the long-term interests of workers, families, and communities—engaging policymakers across party lines while affirming the United States as the world’s greatest land of opportunity.
From 2018 to 2019, Engler was appointed Interim President of Michigan State University, his alma mater, where he focused on institutional stability, governance, and restoring public trust during a period of transition.
Engler has long been active in civic and philanthropic leadership. He serves as a trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, where he has been a leading advocate for the legacy of President Gerald R. Ford and the virtues of principled public service. He continues his leadership in the charter school’s movement as a board member of the National Charter Schools Institute. His board service also has included the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Universal Forest Products, and previously Dow Jones, Delta Air Lines, Munder Funds, and Fidelity’s Fixed Income and Asset Allocation Funds. He is the past chair of the National Education Goals Panel, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, and the Republican Governors Association
As Chairman of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, Engler brings a lifetime of experience in public leadership, institutional governance, and the necessary intellectual foundations of public policy to an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural and constitutional foundations of American life. His leadership reflects a shared conviction with Russell Kirk that free institutions depend upon strong pre-political foundations, such as family, education, religion, private and public virtue, sound first principles, and a cultivated understanding of “the politics of prudence.”
John Engler and his wife, Michelle Engler, are the parents of triplet daughters.
Facts about the Russell Kirk Center
for Cultural Renewal
Location
Status
Mission
To strengthen the foundations—cultural, economic, and religious—of Western civilization and the American experience within it.
Focus
Audience
Partnerships
Programs
Publications
Meet Annette Kirk, President Emerita
Annette Kirk is co-founder with Jeffrey O. Nelson of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.
A native New Yorker, Mrs. Kirk moved to the village of Mecosta, Michigan in 1964 when she married Russell Kirk. While raising their four daughters and acting as lecture agent for her husband, she founded the Mecosta County Council for the Arts, and served for ten years as Chairman of the Mecosta County Board of Social Services.
Mrs. Kirk was a board member of the Midland Charter Initiative and the Education Freedom Fund, which awarded scholarships to low-income students in Michigan Schools. She served as an advisor to the Heritage Foundation’s Russell Kirk Memorial Lecture Series and was a member of the board of the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries. She currently serves as an advisor to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Annette Kirk received her Bachelor of Arts degree and an honorary doctor of letters from Molloy College. She taught English and Drama in a New York public high school and did graduate work in theater at Queens College, in literature at St. John’s University, and in education at Columbia University.
President Ronald Reagan appointed Annette Kirk to the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which in 1983 published the landmark report, A Nation at Risk, elevating educational issues to national prominence. Since then, she has encouraged our educational and political leaders to consider to what purpose we are educating our youth, and whether true education can exist without a moral dimension.
During her thirty-year marriage to Russell Kirk, they gave joint lectures, campaigned for political candidates, and hosted thousands of students at seminars held in the library where Russell Kirk wrote almost all of his thirty-two books.
To learn more about Annette and Russell Kirk’s life together, enjoy Annette’s lecture delivered at the Heritage Foundation: Life With Russell Kirk.
Annette Kirk served as the president of the Russell Kirk Center from 1995 to 2022.
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.
Senior Fellows
Bradley J. Birzer, Ph.D.
Professor of History, Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies, Hillsdale College
Ian Crowe, M.A. (Oxon), M. Litt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History, Belmont Abbey College
Michael Federici, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University
James E. Person, Jr.
Publishing manager, writer, and editor at large, Northville, Michigan
Board of Directors
Hon. John Engler, former Governor of Michigan
Chairman of the Board
Jeffrey O. Nelson, The Russell Kirk Center
Executive Director & CEO
Kevin P. Shields, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Treasurer
Benjamin Lockerd, Professor of English, Grand Valley State University
Secretary
T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., President Emeritus, Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Chairman, 2022- 2025
David E. Khorey, Partner, Varnum LLP
Roger Kimball, Editor & Publisher, The New Criterion
Stephen Markman, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice
Michael C. Maibach, Managing Director, James Wilson Institute
Joanne Emmons†, Chairman 1995 – 2022
Staff
Dr. Jeffrey O. Nelson and Annette Y. Kirk, Co-Founders
Jeffrey O. Nelson, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Executive Director & CEO
Annette Kirk
Co-Founder and President Emerita
Kevin P. Shields
Managing Director
Cecilia Kirk Nelson
Publications & Operations Manager
Emily Corwin
Director of Events & Program Outreach
Ashley Jordan
Donor Relations Officer
Darrell Falconburg, Ph.D.
Academic Program Officer
Chris Marlink
Communications Manager
Alex Meregaglia
Archivist