Janice Chik Breidenbach, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy, Chair of the Department, and Director of the Graduate Philosophy Program at Ave Maria University. She is also a Member of the Aquinas Institute at Blackfriars Hall at Oxford, and Senior Affiliate of the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. A graduate of Princeton University with degrees in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Music Performance, she earned postgraduate degrees in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of St Andrews, UK.

She was previously a Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Florida, Barry Foundation Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (2019–20), and a Visiting Research Scholar (2017, 2019, 2026) at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. At the University of Texas at Austin, she was a Darrell K. Royal Fellow in Ethics and American Society, and a PhD Fellow in the Law and Philosophy Program. At the University of St Andrews, UK, she was awarded the Scottish Overseas Research Award Scholarship from 2010-2013.

Her research addresses questions in the metaphysics of substance and agent causation, the quantum hylomorphism project advanced by Robert Koons and William Simpson, the philosophy of life and parenthood, and the social ontology relating to powers of expression and conscience. Her book project advances an account of human speech as the foundational condition for political life, in negotiation with pre-political forms of engagement, such as non-discursive assemblies, and supra-political forms, such as theologically-informed religious worship.

Classically trained in violin, piano, and voice, she has played with and for several orchestras, both collegiate and professional, including the Princeton University Orchestra as Principal Chair and Associate Concertmaster, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Delaware Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. During her musical career she performed public masterclasses with violinist Andrew Manze (Academy of Ancient Music), the Tackas Quartet (winner of Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music), and the Brentano Quartet (Yale University’s Quartet in Residence). She was the winner of the 14th annual Tampa Bay Symphony Young Artist's Competition, performing as soloist for the 2000-2001 concert season, and took first prizes in the Orlando Music Society Piano Competition and FSMTA State Concerto Competition. She sang in the Schola Cantorum Princetoniensis, Princeton University’s Gregorian chant ensemble, following her reception into the Roman Catholic Church in the Princeton University Chapel in 2005.

She lives in Southwest Florida with her husband Prof. Michael Breidenbach, their son, and a Portuguese Water Dog named Fado Fofo.