What happens when the conservative movement speaks a language today’s young people no longer recognize? In this talk, Kimberly Begg, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women, examines how the lived experiences of Gen Z and Gen Alpha differ sharply from those of leaders shaped by twentieth-century events—and why yesterday’s arguments no longer persuade. Drawing on her work with young women across the country, Begg explores how words like conservative, freedom, and truth no longer carry shared meaning for a generation formed by COVID lockdowns, the rise of transgender ideology, and a deep mistrust of authorities who demand conformity while denying reality. She argues that today’s young people are both dreamers and realists. They are not interested in fighting their parents’ battles. What they want is to chart their own path rooted in purpose and common sense. Our task is to meet that desire with humility—to earn their trust, pass on hard-earned wisdom, and help them build meaningful lives capable of sustaining a free society.

Kimberly Begg is president of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women. An attorney with more than 25 years of experience strengthening conservative causes, her long history with the Luce Center began in the 1990s when she was a student at Rutgers University. In 1997, she attended the Luce Center’s College Women’s Luncheon in Washington, DC and hosted a Luce campus lecture the following year.

She has been a regular speaker for the Luce Center since the 2000s and has served on the Center’s board of advisors and board of directors. She is the author of Unbreakable: Saints Who Inspired Saints to Moral Courage (TAN Books) and co-author with Mike Ortner of Catholic School Playbook (Word on Fire). She has served as vice president and general counsel of Young America’s Foundation and director of programs and general counsel of the Ortner Family Foundation. She helped found Young America’s Foundation’s Be Not Afraid seminar (originally, the Standing Up for Faith and Freedom seminar), an annual program for students at Catholic schools, in 2015.

From 2021 to 2024, she served as founding editor of Catholic School Playbook, a website documenting the best practices of thriving Catholic schools. She serves on the board of directors of Young America’s Foundation, the board of overseers of the Dominican House of Studies, and the DC board of regents of Thomas Aquinas College.

She lives in Herndon, Virginia, with her husband, Ian, and their five children.