Nancy Zirkin is currently a strategic consultant to public interest organizations and serves on several national boards. Formerly, Zirkin was executive vice president for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (2002-2017), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, consisting of nearly 230 national organizations. While Zirkin officially joined the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in 2001, she had been a part of its various lobby efforts, including task forces on education reform, hate crimes, affirmative action, and judicial nominations, from the 1990s. Under Zirkin's leadership, along with Wade Henderson, president of LCCHR, and Karen McGill Lawson, COO and executive vice-president, LCCHR grew to over five times its originally ten-person size, creating the infrastructure necessary to support the organization's growing institutional needs. During the mid-1970s, Zirkin worked at several public interest organizations, including Common Cause and the Women's Equity Action League, but gained significant experience at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) (1980-2001) where she became director of public policy and government relations. She distinguished herself there by rising to chief lobbyist and managing the coordination of the Equal Rights Amendment, Women's Vote Project and Civil Rights Act of 1991.