Kevin M. Zielinski, B.S., J.D.

(Assistant Professor)

Kevin M. Zielinski is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Finance and Economics at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Associate Counsel for Legal Reform and Oversight at the Institute for Reforming Government. He is a member of the Illinois bar. His scholarship centers on state constitutional interpretation, criminal procedure, and pretrial detention, with particular attention to Illinois and Wisconsin. At IRG he created IRG Court Watch, a public resource on how Wisconsin's appellate courts decide cases, and works on government transparency and open-records law. He has written for the Federalist Society on recent Supreme Court decisions and on Illinois's SAFE-T Act. He earned his J.D. from SIU Simmons Law School in 2025 and his B.S. in molecular and cell biology from the University of Illinois.