Board of Advisors
Allan Carlson is currently the John A. Howard Distinguished Fellow for Family and Religious Studies at the International Organization for the Family and Editor of The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy. In addition, he is a Senior Editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. He is the author of 15 books including The Natural Family: A Manifesto (2007). In 1988 U.S. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the special National Commission on Children, on which he served until 1993. Carlson founded the World Congress of Families in 1997 and has guided its 16 annual international sessions.
Carlson has taught politics and history at Hillsdale College and lectured at Gettysburg College and the Catholic University of America and at universities and scholarly academies in over 20 other nations. He has written for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The International Herald-Tribune, and many other periodicals. He has been a frequent guest on radio and television, including CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NPR, C-SPAN, CBC, and MSNBC.
Kevin Garvey is an attorney for Jones Day where he counsels clients in international trade, foreign investment, and national security matters and represents clients in complex cross-border internal and government investigations. Prior to joining Jones Day, Kevin served as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Chief of Staff to the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer. At the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR), Kevin was deeply involved in the negotiations of the Phase One trade deal with China, implementation of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the launch of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the United Kingdom and Kenya, and reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Kevin previously worked in the white collar and government litigation and investigations practice at a major law firm in Washington, D.C., where he represented individual and corporate clients before law enforcement and regulatory agencies in a wide range of enforcement matters, including investigations of alleged securities fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), export controls, and economic sanctions regulations.
Bethany Kozma is the founder and CEO of Keystone Policy, a non-profit focused on the keystone policies protecting life, religious liberty, and the family. She previously served in various senior executive roles in the Trump Administration at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and left the Agency as Deputy Chief of Staff overseeing operations and policy for the agency. At USAID, she played a pivotal role in ensuring that global investments aligned with National Security Strategy objectives. Representing America’s interests at the United Nations and globally, Bethany advanced the protection of family, life, and religious liberties around the world. Earlier in her career, Bethany served in a variety of public and private sector leadership capacities at the White House during the George W. Bush Administration, at the Department of Homeland Security, in the Intelligence Community, and in private industry, focusing on combating global terrorism, protecting our American homeland, and emergency preparedness and response. As an entrepreneur, Bethany championed innovative human resources approaches in the Intelligence Community to promote women’s work-life balance, enabling child and elder care and wounded warrior rehabilitation. Bethany is a graduate of Grove City College and earned her MBA from the College of William & Mary’s Mason School of Business.
Robert Patterson recently served in the Trump administration as an associate commissioner of the Social Security Administration and as senior advisor at the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Prior to these appointments, Patterson — through his extensive writings and as a congressional nominee in his native New Jersey — was a pioneer urging the GOP to stand with Middle America, not Wall Street, calling for a revival of domestic manufacturing and the recovery of the family wage. Especially in a series of commentaries in the Philadelphia Inquirer from 2012 through 2015, Patterson exposed the contradiction of Republicans claiming to be pro-family while simultaneously advocating for economic policies that ruined the livelihood of many families via free trade, globalization, and financialization.
Patterson also served as a senior speechwriter at both HHS and the Small Business Administration in Bush 43, as vice president of the U.S. Business & Industrial Council fighting against globalist trade schemes and corporate outsourcing during the Obama years, and as editor of the The Family In America: A Journal of Public Policy, an academic quarterly that quantified the natural family as a foundation of American strength and promise.
Keith Rothfus represented Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives between 2013 and 2019. He served on the House’s Financial Services and Judiciary Committees where he worked on issues relating to the opioid crisis and the nation’s anti-money laundering efforts. He lives near Pittsburgh with his wife and children.
Steven Schaefer is an attorney who works for an educational institution. Prior to moving to Washington, DC, Steven was a commercial litigator in Michigan. Before becoming an attorney, Steven was a public high school teacher, and coach. He taught by day, while attending Wayne State University Law School at night. He located the best late-night locations that allowed him to grade student papers, and complete law review edits. He is currently a graduate student at the Van Andel School of Government at Hillsdale College in Washington, DC. He is a 2019-2020 Washington, DC, Leonine Forum Fellow and a member of the Catholic Bar Association.
Rob Siedlecki is the General Counsel and Director of Outreach for the International Organization for the Family. Prior to joining IOF, he served in appointed leadership positions in the federal government at the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Justice and at the state level in large health and human services departments. Rob is a graduate of Harvard University and Cornell Law School.