UIUC - Key Persons


Abigail Bobrow

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Storytelling / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Alex Schmidt

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement Administration / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Alex Sune

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Alexis Thompson

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee

Alice Cary

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Alicia Lowery

Job Titles:
  • Director, Talent Acquisition, IHR

Allison Kushner

Job Titles:
  • Director ADA

Allison Vance

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee
  • Public Affairs
  • Strategic Content Director ( Ex Officio )

Alma Sealine

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of University Housing

Amy Adams

Job Titles:
  • Web Developer
Amy develops and maintains the OVCRI's suite of websites, overseeing functionality, accessibility, and design.

Amy Santos

Job Titles:
  • Office of the Provost

Andrea Darlas

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director of Constituent Engagement / Illini Center Chicago

Andreas Cangellaris - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Andrew Hohn

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Anita Balgopal

Job Titles:
  • Director, Institutional Review Board

Ann Marie Morgan

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean of Students

Anthony Cobb

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

ANTHONY TANGORA

Job Titles:
  • Director for International Advancement

Antoinette Burton

Job Titles:
  • Director, IPRH

Arnoldo Ayala

Job Titles:
  • Illinois Student Government
  • Member of Committee

Ashley Dye

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Ashley Gorman

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Stewardship & Donor Relations / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Assata Zerai

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Audrey LeGrande

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Event Strategy / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

August Schiess

Job Titles:
  • Director of Social Media ( Ex Officio )
  • Member of Committee

Awais Vaid

Job Titles:
  • Deputy Administrator, Champaign Urbana Public Health District

Barb Robbins

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Barlow LeVold

Job Titles:
  • Director of Foundation Relations

Barry Benson

Job Titles:
  • Vice Chancellor for Advancement / Senior Vice President for Development, UIF

Barry Houser

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Ben Percy

Job Titles:
  • IT Technical Associate
Ben develops and supports online applications designed to facilitate various research needs across the campus

Beth Lewis

Job Titles:
  • Office Manager
Beth provides administrative support for Melanie Loots, Sharee Robinson, Sue Key, OVCRI HR and she is the first responder for the OVCRI mainline.

Beth Slotnick

Job Titles:
  • Senior Assistant Director of Human Resources, University Housing

Bill Bernhard

Job Titles:
  • Office of the Provost, Co - Chair
  • Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Bill King

Job Titles:
  • Professor Mechanical Science and Engineering

Bill Sullivan

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Landscape Architecture

Blair Rowitz

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, Carle Illinois College of Medicine Carle

Bob Flider

Job Titles:
  • Director, Community and Government Relations

Brad Swanson

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Brandi Pulleyblank

Job Titles:
  • Human Resources Coordinator, Engineering

Brant Seraphin

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Brenda Morris

Job Titles:
  • Human Resource Associate

Brent Roberts

Job Titles:
  • Director, Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences

Brian Brauer - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Associate Director, Fire Service Institute - CEOC

Brian Cunningham

Job Titles:
  • Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, MNTL

Brian Farber

Job Titles:
  • Executive Assistant to the Associate VC for Student Affairs / Director of Auxiliary Services

Caitlin Bruning

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director for Personnel and Administration, Mathematics

Carla McCowan

Job Titles:
  • Director, Counseling Center

Cassie Arner

Job Titles:
  • Associate Athletic Director, Marketing, Fan Development & Strategic Communication
  • Member of Committee

Catherine Murphy

Job Titles:
  • Head, Department of Chemistry

Chantelle Thompson

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Charlie Simpson

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, Carle Illinois College of Medicine

Chris Ackerman-Avila

Job Titles:
  • Student, ISG Vice President

Chris Brooke

Job Titles:
  • Department of Microbiology

Chris Harris

Job Titles:
  • Director of Strategic Communications ( Ex Officio )

Christopher Lehmann

Job Titles:
  • Research Integrity Officer
Chris serves as intake official for research misconduct allegations and promotes training in the responsible conduct of research for the campus.

Christopher Span

Job Titles:
  • Representative
  • Ex Officio

Claire Sharples Brooks

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director, EEO

Corey Thoss - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Craig Harper

Job Titles:
  • Chief

Cynthia Howard

Job Titles:
  • Director of Business and Operations, KPCA

Cynthia Orizaba

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Dale Wright

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement

Dana Yun

Job Titles:
  • Student

Danielle Morrison

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Danita Brown Young

Job Titles:
  • Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement
  • Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs ( Co - Chair )

Dave Kranz

Job Titles:
  • Department of Biochemistry

Dave Richardson

Job Titles:
  • Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation / Director, Security Management Office
Dave leads Sponsored Programs Administration, the office that supports the research enterprise throughout the entire lifecycle of an externally sponsored project, from proposal submission to award close-out.

David Bambrey

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

David Black

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

David Brambrey

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee

David Bruns

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of Principal Gifts

David Chasco

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

DAWN ADEMOKUNWA

Job Titles:
  • Director of Advancement / Illini Center Chicago

Deb Stone

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Executive Director, HR Administration, IHR
  • Interim Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources

Denise Poindexter

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Dennis Craig

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Diana Yates

Job Titles:
  • Agriculture, Applied Health Sciences, Life Sciences

Dominic Cobb

Job Titles:
  • Minority Student Affairs

Dustin Yocum

Job Titles:
  • Official

Ehab Kamarah

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair
  • Interim Executive Director of Facilities & Services

Elvira Demejia

Job Titles:
  • Director, Nutritional Sciences, ACES

Elyne Cole

Job Titles:
  • Senior Associate Chancellor for Human Resources ( Chair )

Enoma Egiebor

Job Titles:
  • President Illinois Student Government

Erez Cohen

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

Eric J. Jolly

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

Eric Minor

Job Titles:
  • Chief Marketing Officer, Office of Strategic Marketing and Branding
  • Member of Committee

Eric Smith

Job Titles:
  • Director, HR, Diversity and Strategy, Facilities and Services

Erica Hanson

Job Titles:
  • Human Resources Coordinator
Erica staffs OVCRI searches and provides advice and guidance on HR-related issues such as promotions, behavioral adaptation, budget forecasts, and diversity/inclusion issues.

Erin Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Associate
  • Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations Designate ( Staffing and Support )
  • Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations

Erin Marker

Job Titles:
  • Director of Development

Erin Nelson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director for International Advancement

Eva Schmidt

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Advancement / Illini Center Chicago

Evan Simpson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Business and Finance Coordinator
Evan manages the post-award side of Campus Research Board; serves as a resource for portfolio units regarding business processes & university policy; processes travel/meal reimbursements; makes payments to vendors; initiates requisitions for goods & services; and serves as a Unit Security Contact for the portfolio.

Fred Zwicky


Gabe Gibson

Job Titles:
  • Director, Technology Services, ATLAS ( Ex Officio )

Gabrielle Allen

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Research and Research Education, College of Education

German Bollero

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Research, ACES

Gina Lee-Olukoya

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Gina Oleynichak

Job Titles:
  • Director of Budget and Resource Planning, Gies College of Business

Greg Burdette

Job Titles:
  • Foellinger Auditorium Manager

Greg Gulick

Job Titles:
  • Interim Chief Information Officer

Harley Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Professor, Grainger College of Engineering

Heather Clay

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director for Advancement

Heidi Imker

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Research, Library Research

Heidi Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Holly Foster

Job Titles:
  • Chancellor

Idalis French

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student Laura Frerichs, Executive Director Research Park

Isabel Molina-Guzman

Job Titles:
  • Executive Secretary

James Fraley

Job Titles:
  • Community Member

James Hintz

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success and Engagement
  • Chairman of Committee

James Quisenberry

Job Titles:
  • Director, Student Affairs Technology ( Ex Officio )

James Wade

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean for Budget & Business Operations, Vet

Jamie Hackett

Job Titles:
  • Interim Associate Provost and Director of Budget Operations

Jamie McFarling

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director of Stewardship and Donor Relations / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Jan Novakofski

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Compliance ( Chair )
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Compliance and
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for Compliance
  • Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation for Compliance
Jan manages the OVCRI units that provide investigator support and regulatory oversight for activities involving animals, biological safety, chemicals, human subjects, and radioactive materials.

January Boten

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Jason Heimbaugh - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Jason Quackenbush

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Annual Giving Communications / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Jason Vetter

Job Titles:
  • IT Manager
Jason designs and develops the underlying architecture used by the OVCRI IT group to build online systems for monitoring research compliance, funding programs and initiatives, researcher training, reporting tools, and OVCRI accounting and business needs.

JB Bailey

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Jeff Brown

Job Titles:
  • Dean, Gies College of Business

Jenifer Dillavou

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair
  • Chairman of Committee

Jennifer Kresin

Job Titles:
  • Business Manager

Jennifer Quirk

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director for Research and External Affairs, IGB

Jessalyn Flores

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Jessica Breitbarth

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Advancement, Carle Illinois College of Medicine

Jill Fleming

Job Titles:
  • IT Technical Associate
Jill provides web application, user experience, programming, and technological support for the OVCRI and reporting units.

Jim Sims

Job Titles:
  • Director, Facilities and Services

Jimmy Song

Job Titles:
  • Student

Jodi Heckel


Joe Brumleve

Job Titles:
  • Art Director / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

John Dallesasse

Job Titles:
  • SEC Vice Chair and Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

John Marquardt

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee

John Vozenilek

Job Titles:
  • Co - Director JUMP Simulation Center, Carle Illinois College of Medicine OSF

Joseph McCullough

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Josh Whitman

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Joshua Gulley - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Julia Sullivan

Job Titles:
  • Director of Talent Management

Julie Elzanati

Job Titles:
  • Director of Foundation Relations

Julie Jackson

Job Titles:
  • ADVANCEMENT ASSOCIATE
  • Director of Development, Principal & Major Gifts

Justin M. Brauer

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Strategic Engagement / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Karen Yeager

Job Titles:
  • Assistant
  • Associate Director
  • Office Administrator

Katherine Snyder

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee

Katie Frye

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student, Department of Microbiology

Katie Harrell

Job Titles:
  • ADVANCEMENT ASSOCIATE
  • Associate Director for Advancement

Katie Shumway

Job Titles:
  • Director, Community Learning Lab ( Ex Officio )

Katie Walker

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Talent Management

Katie Watson

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director for Content Strategy ( Ex Officio )

Kayla Banks

Job Titles:
  • Vice President, Carle

Kelley Frazier

Job Titles:
  • Office Manager
Kelley provides administrative support for Linda Lee Drozt, Christopher Lehmann, Jan Novakofski, and Cynthia Oliver. She is also the primary point of contact for all Campus Research Board/Scholars' Travel inquiries.

Kelly McCleary

Job Titles:
  • Office Manager / Alice Campbell Alumni Center
  • Support

Kent Brown

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Kenton McHenry

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director, NCSA

Kevin Hamilton

Job Titles:
  • Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts

Kevin Pitts

Job Titles:
  • Office of the Provost, Co - Chair

Kim Schmidt

Job Titles:
  • Director of Storytelling / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Kraig A Wagenecht

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director, External Research Partnerships
  • Senior Director, External Research Partnerships, OVCRI
Kraig provides business and administrative support and planning for campus-level research initiatives and external research collaborations.

Kristi Kuntz

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Office of the Provost

Kristin Burnette

Job Titles:
  • Director of Annual Giving / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Kristin McMurray

Job Titles:
  • Associate Registrar for FMS
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee
  • Office of the Registrar

Kristy Inman

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Krystiana Krupa

Job Titles:
  • Program Officer, NAGPRA Office
Krystiana focuses on comprehensively cataloguing human remains and cultural items in the Illinois' collection, researching their relationships to tribal communities, and facilitating their repatriation.

L. Brian Stauffer


Laura Wilhelm-Barr

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Lea Peck

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Social Media ( Ex Officio )

Lenny Willis

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee

Leslie Arvan

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director of Labor and Employee Relations, IHR

Leslie Lewin Reinhart

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Human Resources
Leslie provides human resources expertise and support to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and the units within the OVCRI portfolio.

Leslie Morrow

Job Titles:
  • Director, LGBT Resources

Leyi Wang

Job Titles:
  • Clinical Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine

Linda Gregory

Job Titles:
  • Director, Sponsored Programs Administration

Linda Lee

Job Titles:
  • Officer
Linda coordinates campus compliance with sponsor-specific conflict of interest (COI) requirements/regulations and supports conflict identification and management efforts.

Lindsay Quick

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Lisa Monda-Amaya

Job Titles:
  • Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Lisa O'Banion

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Annual Giving Programs / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Lisa Power

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Interim Campus Legal Counsel

Liz Ahlberg Touchstone


Logan Middleton

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student

Lois Yoksoulian


Lyndon J. Goodly

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
  • Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Lyndon provides oversight of the campus Animal Care and Use Program. As the Institutional Veterinarian and Director of the Division of Animal Resources, he ensures that the university remains in compliance with federal, state, and institutional policies associated with animal research, teaching, and animal wellbeing.

M. Cynthia Oliver

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor - Humanities, Arts, and Related Fields
  • Department of Dance
  • Research Board Executive Officer
Cynthia leads OVCRI programs that support the creative and scholarly work of faculty in the Humanities, Arts, and related fields. She also oversees the Office of Research Advising and Project Development and serves as Executive Officer of the Campus Research Board.

Mara Thacker

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Marcus Jackson

Job Titles:
  • Director, Division of Campus Recreation

Maria Gillombardo

Job Titles:
  • Research Development Manager
Maria works closely with faculty in the humanities, arts, and humanistic social sciences in support of their scholarly and creative research. She provides services in support of research project design and development that include identifying funding avenues, facilitating agency-specific information sessions, connecting faculty with campus colleagues and resources, and proposal development.

Mariama Mwilambwe

Job Titles:
  • Student Trustee

Marius Junge

Job Titles:
  • Department of Mathematics

Martin Gruebele

Job Titles:
  • Professor, Head of Department of Chemistry

Martin McFarlane

Job Titles:
  • Director, Office of International Student and Scholar Services

Marty Burke

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Research, Carle Illinois College of Medicine ( Chair )

Marty Kaufmann

Job Titles:
  • Senior Associate Director of Athletics, External Relations

Matt Wszolek

Job Titles:
  • Senior Executive of Marketing & Media
Matt Wszolek Senior Executive of Marketing & Media Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement and Office of Strategic Marketing & Branding (312) 575-7842 mwszolek@illinois.

Matthew Tomaszewski

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Executive Associate Provost for Capital Planning

Maureen Banks

Job Titles:
  • Director, Safety & Compliance F & S

Melanie Loots

Job Titles:
  • Chief of Staff, Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Melanie Loots is the Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is responsible for policy development, strategic and tactical planning, implementation of the University Policy on Conflicts of Commitment and Interest on the Urbana campus, and is liaison to several cross-disciplinary campus units. Melanie has served on federal panels and committees, including National Science Foundation review panels, NASA's SEDAC user working group, the National Research Council Committee for CODATA, and NSF's Advisory Committee for the Office of International Science and Engineering, as well as organizational and program committees for technical conferences and the board of directors of the Great Lakes Consortium for Petascale Computing. From 1991-2000, she directed the Applications Division of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 1989, she worked in drug discovery and information services at E. R. Squibb and Sons, a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. Before moving into the pharmaceutical industry, Melanie received her Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from Princeton in 1979, working with Professor Jeffrey Schwartz, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, working with Professor Jack Halpern.

Melissa Edwards

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of Strategic Research Communications
Melissa provides strategic research communications support for the University, managing the flow of OVCRI news and information, connecting PIs with resources to develop and share research, promoting research events, and organizing the Research Communications Council. She also oversees the Office of Proposal Development.

Melissa Engel

Job Titles:
  • Director of Internal Operations for Institutional Advancement / Alice Campbell Alumni Center
  • Support

Melissa Kisubika

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Michael Brosco

Job Titles:
  • Director of Research Application Development
Mike leads the OVCRI IT group, which develops and supports applications designed to facilitate research across the campus. This includes online systems for monitoring research compliance, funding programs and initiatives, researcher training, reporting tools, and OVCRI accounting and business needs.

Michael DeLorenzo - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Ex Officio
  • Vice Chancellor for Administration and Operations Designate ( Chair )

Michael Devocelle

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean for Finance and Administration, Engineering

Michael Ryan

Job Titles:
  • Student

Michael Vitoux

Job Titles:
  • Community Member

Mike Bass

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Mike Bohlmann - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Mike Nelson

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of International Constituent Engagement / Illini Center Chicago

Mohamed Attalla

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Executive Director F & S

Monica Miller

Job Titles:
  • Director of the Division of Research Safety

Nate Hoffmann

Job Titles:
  • Director, Office of Technology Management

Nick Dunn

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Nick Vance

Job Titles:
  • Manager, Data and Technology Innovation ( Ex Officio )

Nigel Goldenfeld

Job Titles:
  • Department of Physics

Nisar Qureshi

Job Titles:
  • Director Human Resources, DIA

Olivia M. Koenig

Job Titles:
  • Senior Director of Advancement / Illini Center Chicago

Pat Malik

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Patricia Anton

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Housing for Residential Life

Patricia Jones

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director for Research, Beckman

Patrick Wade

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Paul Ellinger

Job Titles:
  • Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Budget and Resource Planning ( Chair )

Paul Hergenrother

Job Titles:
  • Department of Chemistry

Paulanne Jushkevich

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement, Health Sciences & Research Initiatives

Penny Nigh

Job Titles:
  • Associate
  • Ex Officio
  • Executive Associate Chancellor

Perrin Simone

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Phil Ciciora


Pradeep Khanna

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Corporate Relations and Economic Development
Pradeep leads corporate relations and economic development activities for the campus.

Prasanta Kalita

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Preeti Sharma

Job Titles:
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biochemistry

Rachel Hull

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director of Strategic Engagement / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Rachel Switzky

Job Titles:
  • Director of Siebel Center for Design

Rajeev Malik

Job Titles:
  • Director of Foundation Relations

Rebecca Salzman

Job Titles:
  • Assistant to the Director, Illini Union
  • Member of Committee

Rebecca Schultz

Job Titles:
  • Graphic Design Associate / Alice Campbell Alumni Center

Rebecca Smith

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor Epidemiology, College of Veterinary Medicine

Richard Herman

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

Richard Sallee

Job Titles:
  • Research Development Coordinator
Richard provides support throughout the limited submission selection process and assists with choosing submitted proposals. He also provides administrative support for Melissa Edwards and Harley Johnson.

Robb Craddock

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Labor and Employee Relations, IHR

Robbie Witt

Job Titles:
  • Director, Classification, Compensation, Records Admin. & Appointment Processing, IHR

Robert J. Jones

Job Titles:
  • Chancellor of the University of Illinois
  • Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost
Robert J. Jones became chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on September 26, 2016. He previously served as president of the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY) and is an experienced and accomplished scientist and research university leader. A Georgia native, Jones, born in 1951, earned a bachelor's degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a master's degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. He began his academic career as a faculty member at Minnesota in 1978 and became an internationally respected authority on plant physiology. Throughout his distinguished, 34-year career at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, Jones held several progressively responsible positions at the Big Ten institution. While senior vice president for system academic administration, Jones had administrative and budgetary responsibilities for the four constituent campuses in Duluth, Crookston, Morris and Rochester and the offices for public engagement, equity and diversity, Extension Service, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Stations, information technology and human resources. He played a leadership role in establishing a new four-year campus in Rochester and the nation's first urban research and outreach/engagement center (UROC) designed to help find a solution to complex challenges in economically depressed urban communities. The center was named in Jones' honor in 2015. From Minnesota, Jones became the President of the University at Albany, one of SUNY system's leading research universities. During his tenure there, Jones launched that university's largest and most strategic academic expansion in 50 years, including establishment of the nation's first integrated College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. He created the university's first College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, established a deep academic affiliation with historic Albany Law School, established Albany's first vice presidency for health sciences and biomedical initiatives, advanced strategies for reinvigorating the arts and humanities, and obtained land resources and capitol funds to construct the Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Jones serves as chancellor of the state's flagship, land-grant university and vice president in the University of Illinois system, with universities in Chicago and Springfield. At Urbana, Jones' tenured faculty home is in the Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). Jones is the first African American scholar appointed as Urbana chancellor since the office was created in 1967. At Illinois, he launched a year-long celebration of the university's Sesquicentennial that honored its history while establishing a new vision of the land-grant university for the 21st century. Under his leadership that future is taking shape quickly and visibly. The university has launched a $2.25 billion philanthropic campaign that has already reached 77% of its goal and includes two of the largest private gifts ever made to Illinois ($150 million to name the Gies College of Business and a $100 million gift to name the Grainger College of Engineering). He has implemented the vision of creating The Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the first engineering-based medical school in the world. The hiring of an inaugural vice chancellor for diversity, education and inclusion was a major step in fostering an even more open and collaborative community of students and faculty. And with the Illinois Commitment, a program that guarantees four years free tuition to state residents with family incomes less than $61,000, Jones has continued to deliver on the university's founding promise of making a world-class college education affordable and accessible. Throughout his career, Jones has worked to make education available to promising young scholars around the world. From 1984-1994, he worked with Archbishop Desmond Tutu's South African Education Program (as an academic and scientific consultant) which educated more than 3,000 black South Africans in American Universities. Jones is also an accomplished vocalist and was a member of the Grammy award-winning Sounds of Blackness, a Minnesota-based choral ensemble for 30 years. He also serves on the Board of Directors of APLU, Campus Compact, the Farm Foundation, and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Jones is married to Dr. Lynn Hassan Jones, MD, a muscular skeletal diagnostic radiologist. Together they have five children and four grandchildren.

Robert Kessler

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean for Budget and Resource Planning, LAS

Robert Parker

Job Titles:
  • Director, McKinley Health Center

Robert Woodard

Job Titles:
  • Medical Director, McKinley Health Center

Robin Kaler - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs

Ruby Mendenhall

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean, Carle Illinois College of Medicine

Ryan Dilger

Job Titles:
  • Vice - Chair

Ryan Riley

Job Titles:
  • Support

SAMANTHA HENDON

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director of Principal Gift Donor Services

Sandra Yoo

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Sara Fajardo

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Sarah Eichhorn

Job Titles:
  • Office of the Provost

Sarah Morris

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Vice Chancellor for Regional and Global Advancement / Illini Center Chicago

Scott Genung

Job Titles:
  • Deputy CIO IT Operations ( Ex Officio )
  • Interim Chief Information Officer

Sean Garrick

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Executive Steering Committee
  • Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ( Co - Chair )
  • Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation

Sean MacAllister

Job Titles:
  • Student

Shana Makos

Job Titles:
  • Student

Sharee Robinson

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Sharee oversees the financal and human resource operations for the OVCRI and portfolio units.

Sharita Forrest

Job Titles:
  • Education, Social Work

Shaylah Scott

Job Titles:
  • Student

Skye Arseneau

Job Titles:
  • Interim Director, Library Human Resources

Stephen Burton

Job Titles:
  • IT Technical Associate
Steve works to design, code, and support the online applications provided by OVCRI to facilitate research across the campus.

Steve Anderson

Job Titles:
  • Dean, School of Social Work

Steve Witmer

Job Titles:
  • Director
  • Director, UI News Bureau ( Ex Officio )

Stu Levenick

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

Suge Lim

Job Titles:
  • Communications Designer
Suge works with the communications team to develop a variety of materials, including websites, infographics, social media graphics, promotional items, and more. She also provide visual design expertise and advice to units that report to and work with the OVCRI.

Susan A. Martinis

Job Titles:
  • Stephen G. Sligar Professor
  • Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Illinois
  • Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Susan Martinis is Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she provides leadership for the campus-wide interdisciplinary research institutes, promotes new research initiatives, and oversees the administrative and business processes that ensure the safe, ethical, and productive conduct of research at Illinois. Dr. Martinis, the Stephen G. Sligar Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, studies the mechanisms, evolution, and biomedical applications of protein synthesis and RNA-protein interactions. She is a successful researcher, engaged in entrepreneurial and corporate partnerships, a committed educator, and an experienced administrator. Susan A. Martinis earned her B.S. from Washington State University (1985) and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois (1990). She then trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow. She was hired in 1993 at a start-up biotechnology company Cubist Pharmaceuticals as its 3rd employee. Dr. Martinis was awarded the company's first U.S. patent and National Institutes of Health SBIR grant, before moving to academia at the University of Houston in 1997. Cubist Pharmaceuticals grew to over 600 people, developed the life-saving drug Cubicin, and was acquired in 2014 by Merck Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Martinis also contributed to delineating the mechanism of action for a novel lead antimicrobial drug (AN2690; Rock et al, Science) that was developed by Anacor Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer in 2016) and made commercially available as the anti-fungal Kerydin in 2014. Professor Martinis earned tenure in Houston, Texas where she received the University of Houston's highest teaching honor, the Enron Teaching Excellence Award as well as the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Teaching Excellence Award. She was also recognized by the Houston Alumni Organization with the Outstanding Faculty Award. Dr. Martinis moved to the University of Illinois in 2005, and in 2009 was promoted to the rank of Professor, as well as appointed Head of the Dept. of Biochemistry and also Head of the Dept. of Medical Biochemistry. Professor Martinis was named a University Scholar, and in 2015 honored by appointment as the inaugural Stephen G. Sligar Endowed Professor in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology. She is a member of the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology and an Affiliate in the Dept. of Chemistry. In addition, she received a prestigious Fellowship from the University of Illinois to participate in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's (Big 10 Academic Alliance) Academic Leadership Program in 2011-12, as well as the University of Illinois System Presidential Executive Leadership Program in 2018-19. From 2014-15, Professor Martinis served as Interim Associate Dean over the Biological, Chemical, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and subsequently returned to her position as Head of the Department of Biochemistry. After serving as the interim Vice Chancellor for Research for two years, in 2019, she was named Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation. Dr. Martinis contributed significantly to the founding of the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, which offers a paradigm-shifting approach to teaching medicine that is engineering-based. She served on the initial curriculum committee, as well as the Search Committee that hired the College's first Dean. She was the Interim Director of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering on the Dean's inaugural leadership team. Professor Martinis' research focuses on mechanisms, evolution, and biomedical applications of protein synthesis and RNA-protein interactions. Her investigations center on the family of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, in particular leucyl-tRNA synthetase, where she has made significant contributions for 30 years to understand quality control mechanisms, tRNA recognition, non-canonical roles in mitochondrial group I intron splicing, as well as novel activities of human enzymes. Her research program has been federally supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. She has also received previous funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Human Frontiers Science Program, The Robert A. Welch Foundation, the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, and the Texas Advanced Research Program. The goal of her current research team is to discover and characterize non-canonical activities of as many as twenty splice variants of mammalian leucyl-tRNA synthetases. Break-throughs in understanding the evolution of tRNA synthetase activities have potential to redefine systems biology and yield innovative biomedical therapeutics. Professor Martinis was elected to the Executive Committee of the APLU Council on Research and has served as President of the Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry (AMGDB) across North and Central America. She has served as an inaugural member of the National Institutes of Health Molecular Genetics A study section, as well as participated in Review Panels for the National Science Foundation. Dr. Martinis was an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry for five years.

Susan Key

Job Titles:
  • Director of Portfolio HR, OVCRI
  • Executive Director of Portfolio Human Resources
Sue is responsible for human resources activities, provides HR advice, and serves as the EEO Officer for the OVCRI portfolio.

Susan Young

Job Titles:
  • Executive Senior Associate Director of Athletics / Chief Financial Officer

Tammy Nohren

Job Titles:
  • Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation
Tammy provides administrative support for the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation and assists the OVCRI civil service support staff.

Terri Klinker

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director Strategic Business, Technology Services

Terri Reifsteck

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Theo Long

Job Titles:
  • Executive Director of Budget and Talent Management

Thomas Betz

Job Titles:
  • Student Legal Directing Attorney

Thomas Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Department of Geology

Tiffany Barnett White

Job Titles:
  • Representative

Tim Fan

Job Titles:
  • Professor, Veterinary Clinical Medicine

Tim Offenstein

Job Titles:
  • Vice - Chair

Todd Moeglich

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Todd Short

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio

Tony Franklin

Job Titles:
  • Associate Director, ACES / Extension

Tracy Kleparsky - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Tracy Smith

Job Titles:
  • Director, Research IT & Innovation ( Ex Officio )

Tyler Swanson

Job Titles:
  • Student

Tyler Wolpert

Job Titles:
  • Research Communications Manager

Vickie Gress - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

Vicky Gress

Job Titles:
  • Executive Associate Provost for Budget and Resource Planning

Wanda Ward - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman
  • Executive Associate Chancellor for Administration and University Relations ( Chair )

Wendy Bertram

Job Titles:
  • Executive Assistant to the Chancellor

Wendy Heller - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman

William Gropp

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of Committee

Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko

Job Titles:
  • Dean, Graduate College

Xander Hazel

Job Titles:
  • Member of Committee

Yun Shi

Job Titles:
  • Program Director, International Education

Zach Acton

Job Titles:
  • Ex Officio
  • Member of Committee