Kathleen Nolan
Trial Strategy & Skills, Child Death, Abusive Head Trauma (AHT), Investigation & Prosecution, MDT Collaboration
About Kathleen
Kathleen Nolan is a Special Prosecutor with the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor of Illinois since October 2025, and provides pro bono content development assistance to Coursing Justice.
From May of 2021 to October of 2025, Kathleen was a Senior Attorney with the Zero Abuse Project. In that role, she travelled extensively as a subject matter expert and trainer in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse and maltreatment cases.
Kathleen previously served as the Chief of the Children’s Justice Division in the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office in Madison County, Illinois. She was appointed to that role in 2015 after joining the office in 2013. The Children’s Justice Division handled the charging and prosecution of all child victim cases in the county including physical abuse, sexual assault and child deaths. Her role as Chief of the Division also involved mentoring and training the attorneys she supervised. She also created and presented specialized trainings for members of the Madison County Multi-Disciplinary Team including police, forensic interviewers and Department of Children and Family Services workers.
As a board member of the Southern Illinois Child Death Investigation Task Force, Kathleen worked with a team of professionals across Southern Illinois to create more effective procedures for the examination of suspicious child deaths. Her work as a board member including the creation and presentation of trainings for the various members of the task force.
Kathleen began her prosecution career in the Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2006. Her role as a prosecutor in that office began with the handling of Juvenile Abuse and Neglect cases as well as the Juvenile Delinquency docket. From there, she moved into the full time prosecution of all the child abuse cases in the county and managed a docket of felony and misdemeanor cases.
In 2009, Kathleen accepted a position with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. She traveled throughout the state of Illinois handling the commitment of violent predators under Illinois’ Sexually Violent Person’s Commitment statute. She also prosecuted cases through the Trial Assistance and Statewide Grand Jury divisions.
Kathleen attended St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois in 2001. Kathleen received her Juris Doctorate from Valparaiso University School of Law in 2004.
