Ali Kilmartin

Alison (Ali) M. Kilmartin serves as senior counsel and vice president of strategic relations at Alliance Defending Freedom. In that role, she helps the senior vice president of strategic initiatives oversee the government affairs and Blackstone teams. Kilmartin also leads ADF’s efforts to build, strengthen, and collaborate with allies in state and federal government, broadening the organization’s national-level networks to advance mission and policy goals in alignment with its strategic plan.

Prior to that role, Kilmartin served as chief of staff to Kristen Waggoner, ADF’s CEO, president, and chief counsel, and as vice president of Allied Legal Affairs, which included administering ADF’s Grants & Funding Program.

From 2018 to 2021, Kilmartin was a senior executive service appointee in the Trump Administration, serving the U.S. Department of Labor as deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Secretary, and as chief of staff and then deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy. She also had a detail to the Executive Office of the President at the White House. Prior to joining the executive branch, Kilmartin was a trial and appellate litigator in Big Law for just under a decade, including in the U.S. Supreme Court on several occasions. In 2014, Kilmartin successfully represented a number of Catholic entities challenging the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, which ultimately resulted in a win in Zubik v. Burwell.

Kilmartin earned her J.D. summa cum laude and was first in her class at Penn State Law. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and numerous federal district and appellate courts.