Ms. Kirschner began her career with the HoCoSAO in 2001 as a member of the District Court Division. Over the next decade, she helped create and expand a more formalized Domestic Violence Unit, largely by securing grant funding that increased staffing. In 2008, she was appointed Chief of the Domestic Violence Unit. That same year, she co-founded the Howard County Domestic Violence Fatality and Near-Fatality Review Team in collaboration with the Howard County Police Department. In 2011, she joined the Circuit Court Division, where she handled felony cases, including domestic violence, animal cruelty, robbery, controlled dangerous substances, and homicides. In April of 2019, Ms. Kirschner was named Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Unit, where she handled a majority of the office’s felony domestic violence and animal cruelty cases, as well as other Special Victim Unit cases. She also returned to the Howard County Domestic Violence Fatality and Near-Fatality Review Team and, in January of 2022, was elected Co-Chair – a position she continues to hold today.
In July of 2023, Ms. Kirschner was named Chief of the District Court Division. In this role, she oversees the administration of the division while continuing to prosecute cases. She is also a member of the Local Behavioral Health Advisory Board.
Before her tenure at the HoCoSAO, Ms. Kirschner worked as a judicial law clerk to Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge D. Warren Donohue. Ms. Kirschner received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Political Science from Rutgers College, Rutgers University, and her Juris Doctor from University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore.