Ms. Kirkpatrick has been the Appellate Chief of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota since 2018. As Appellate Chief, she oversees the office’s criminal and civil appeals. She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2004 after clerking for the Honorable Michael J. Melloy of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and, prior to that, the Honorable Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa. Ms. Kirkpatrick has been a member of the USAO’s Appellate Division since 2010. Before that, she was an AUSA in the Criminal Division. She is a graduate of Grinnell College and Drake University Law School.