Keynote Speaker

Dr. Elizabeth Lev's experience studying and teaching art has led her to believe that when we encounter something beautiful, we are made vulnerable and opened to the truth.

As an art historian, Dr. Lev became captivated by Rome while completing her graduate studies. She writes and lectures on Renaissance art in the Eternal City, but is most at home in the Vatican Museums, founded in the 16th century to house the trove of art amassed by centuries of popes. She has spent 15 years studying the vast collection, which contain not only Christian-themed works, but art from virtually every other culture in the world.

A transplanted U.S. art historian with degrees from University of Chicago and University of Bologna, Dr. Lev has been working as a guide in Rome for over 20 years. She currently teaches at Duquesne University’s Italian campus, as well as at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. She loves Rome, its history, art, cuisine, and people, but is happiest in its many churches and museums.

Dr. Lev has served as a commissioner of the Tourism board of Rome and a didactic consultant for the Vatican Museums. She is also the author of four books and has commented on art and the papacy for several television networks. She has taught and lectured in numerous venues in Europe, the U.S., Singapore, and Australia, including an address at the United Nations in New York. Recent projects include a series of columns for the Epoch Times on the light of art throughout dark times in history, and she regularly consults with the Vatican Museums and wrote the film Vatican Treasures. She also wrote “A Body for Glory,” examining how the papal collection of Greco-Roman nudes grew into the Sistine Chapel.

She is also a certified sommelier, so cheers!