Staff Directory

Katie Hrinyak provides leadership for UChicago Global, which provides support, funding mechanisms, and infrastructure for the University community’s global engagement through a Chicago team and centers in Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong, while coordinating closely with the Center in Paris. She manages existing international relationships and builds new ones with the goal of expanding the University’s global reach. She also helps ensure appropriate risk management and mitigation procedures are in place for the University’s global activity and oversees HR, finance, legal, facilities-related, and other operational requirements for the University’s overseas locations in Asia. She works with partners across campus to strengthen the institutional policy and procedures and serves as a liaison for matters relating to international operations.

Katie previously served as a fundraising consultant to a range of domestic and international universities and other non-profit organizations, after spending nine years in Alumni Relations and Development at the University of Chicago. She holds a master’s degree from UChicago and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary.

Sylvia Alajaji supports the CNRS-University of Chicago International Research Center for Fundamental Scientific Discovery (IRC Discovery), a joint research center between the University of Chicago and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). In addition to supporting the center’s programmatic and strategic goals, she ensures the ongoing vitality of the Center’s contributions to scholarship on a global scale and serves as the liaison to on-campus and external stakeholders.

Sylvia comes to the University after serving as Professor of Music at Franklin & Marshall College. She has been in higher education for over fifteen years, both as a faculty member and as a widely published scholar of global cultural production. She received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music.

Carmen Bello manages the University’s Consular relations and supports leadership in their interactions with international partners. Her current responsibil­ities include coordinating the Global team’s efforts for the reception of high-level international delegations, the organization of quarterly international administrators’ meetings, as well as the organization of the annual University of Chicago and Chicago Consular Reception.

Before joining the University, Carmen passed a highly competitive national exam in Spain that qualified her to join the National Public Administration where she worked for more than 5 years, specifically at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her responsibilities there included public procurement and budget management, among others. Prior to that she studied in the United Kingdom, at Sciences-Po in Paris and worked at a European Union think tank. Carmen has a degree in Political Science and a Master’s in International Relations from Complutense University of Madrid.

Tatiana provides direct administrative support for the Assistant Vice President for Science and the Assistant Vice President of Global Initiatives and Strategy. She  also supports administrative functions for the Science Strategy and UChicago Global teams, including paying invoices, reconciling expenses, initiating transfers, and supporting itineraries for visitors as needed.

Tatiana joins the University of Chicago from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, where she was an administrative assistant in the Division of Critical Care Medicine and Neonatology. Prior to that she was a central scheduler at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and worked as a case aide at Haymarket Center. She holds a Bachelor of Healthcare Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Peter Kujawinski leads communications efforts to increase awareness and recognition of UChicago as a leading global research university. In close collaboration with University leaders, schools and divisions, and other campus partners, he develops and implements the global communications strategy and plan to support the University’s international programs and partnerships, overseas centers and campuses, research collaborations, and global education opportunities.

Peter joins the University with a strong background in global communications strategy, media relations, international affairs, and public policy. Most recently, he led global media relations for The Kraft Heinz Co., where he significantly increased the company’s international media coverage. He also previously served as an American diplomat, in positions such as consul general in Calgary and as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. Earlier in his career, he was a political adviser for the U.S. mission to the United Nations and a political analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. During his overseas service, he received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award twice, for reporting on French responses to terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11, and for his work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and cholera epidemic.

Peter is also an award-winning reporter and writer whose work has been published in The New York Times and other publications and the co-author of several young adult novels. He studied public policy at École Nationale d’Administration in Paris and earned his bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown.

Kesiah Mendoza supports efforts to enhance compliance expertise and operational capacity at the University and the Global Centers. Kesiah is responsible for maintaining compliance documentation, trainings, and the development of compliance programs for existing initiatives and to meet new requirements or identified risks.

Before joining UChicago, Kesiah served as a Financial Aid Administrator at DePaul University. She has also worked as an Intake Specialist for Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC. Kesiah has a BA in Geography and an MS in GIS both from the University of Denver.

Kate Moore leads Global’s Chicago-based programming and the university’s institutional partnership. She creates and maintains support structures for faculty conducting international work, oversees a number of internal funding mechanisms, builds relationships with key stakeholders both on campus and abroad, advises academic units and faculty on potential partnership structures and surfaces opportunities for their global engagement.

Before joining the university, Kate served as the Chief of Staff to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Assistant to the UNICEF Executive Director at the New York headquarters. Kate has a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Janice Ng works with the University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong’s Heritage Interpretation Center, where she provides guidance on the development and operations of the exhibition and heritage sites.  Janice coordinates with the advisory committee there, working closely with both University stakeholders and consultants on ongoing activities. In Chicago, Janice promotes and maintains relationships with local Chinese and Hong Kong government representatives as well as Chinese student groups. She serves as the primary contact for the Chinese Consulate, and provides protocol advice to leadership and campus partners for interacting with international partners.

Elise Polly leads events for UChicago Global, which includes the annual marquee event, the US-China Forum, as well as anniversary celebrations for the Global Centers and public facing lectures and workshops. Polly joined the University of Chicago in 2017 in the Office of the President.

Prior to joining UChicago, she provided direct services to families in the child welfare system in Nebraska. Polly holds a BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in sociology, psychology, and human rights. She is currently pursuing her MA at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago.

Eimi Satoh oversees the institutional agreements process to facilitate partnerships between the University of Chicago and international institutions. She collaborates with academic and administrative units, the Office of Legal Counsel, and the Office of the Provost to ideate optimal structures for partnerships; draft agreements; liaise with internal and external stakeholders to refine terms, assess risk, and ensure legal compliance; and secure approval and signature.

Prior to joining Global, Eimi was a Higher Education Consultant at QS Quacquarelli Symonds. She has a BA from Brown University and an MSc from the University of Oxford.

Kathy Sink manages Human Resources internally at the University of Chicago as well as for the Centers in Beijing, Delhi and the University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong. She has been integral in creating hiring processes, hiring manuals, updating employee handbooks, generating personnel policies, establishing procedures and conducting staff training programs to ensure we maintain compliance with local employment laws for each specific country that the University of Chicago conducts business.

Kathy has worked at the University of Chicago for 26 years in various roles; from Payroll, to Research Administration and Grant Management, Financial Management and Administration before coming to UChicago Global. Kathy has a BA in General Studies, with an emphasis in Business Administration and Sociology from Indiana University Northwest and an MBA from Purdue University.

Ryan Steinberg manages efforts to monitor financial transactions, accounting processes, and financial reporting at the University and its Global Centers.  He supports and oversees long and short-term financial goals and initiatives for UChicago and the Centers within its purview. He is implementing the Financial Systems Transformation (FST) Program for Global that will have broad‐reaching benefits. It will provide access to real-time, comprehensive, and reliable financial data to better support day-to-day work and long-term decision making at all levels. This included the areas of financial management, procurement, budgeting, real estate asset management, and post-award grants management.

Before joining UChicago, Ryan most recently served as an Accounting and Finance Consultant at publicly traded Elastic NV. He previously served as an Accounting Supervisor at Elite Dental Partners a DSO with 100+ facilities in 12 states leading the month end accounting close. Ryan has a BS in Finance from DePaul University.

Steve Yandell manages Global’s internal funding opportunities for faculty and academic appointees, including the Provost’s Global Faculty Awards, Research Collaboration Program between UChicago and CNRS Grants, Yuen Research Grants, and the forthcoming Weizmann Grants in Quantum Information Sciences and AI+Sciences. He oversees pre-award processes, including the solicitation, review, and awarding of grants in coordination with faculty committees in addition to providing technical support to current grantees.

Before joining UChicago, Steve served as a grants manager and fundraiser at leading Chicago non-profits, including Heartland Alliance and Start Early (formerly the Ounce of Prevention Fund), and for arts institutions such as Steppenwolf Theatre and The House Theatre of Chicago. Steve has a BA in Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago and holds a certification in Project Management through the Cornell University School of Engineering.