2021-2022 Leadership

Casey Buttke, President

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Casey was a fourth-year student majoring in Criminal Justice and Political Science with minors in Computer Science and Math. Prior to running for the Presidency that past year, she served two years as the Association's Chief of Staff, giving her immense insight into both the workings of the Student Government Association and Northeastern's Administration. Outside of the classroom (and the Senate Chambers), she was in Sigma Kappa sorority, she was a peer tutor, she worked with the DRC, and she had several part-time jobs in Boston.

She wanted to re-introduce SGA to the Northeastern student body. She was more than happy to speak with any students about their concerns and hopefully help them to connect with the right people to make it happen. She, more than anyone, knew that SGA had not been holding up the voices of Northeastern students as much as it could and should have been. By that time the next year, she had full faith that that leadership team could change that. She could be reached at buttke.l@northeastern.edu.

Izzy Galinkin, Executive Vice President

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Izzy was a third-year Business Administration major with concentrations in Marketing and International Business, and a minor in Spanish. She was from Morristown, New Jersey, and was also half Hispanic with a dual citizenship in Costa Rica, where she loved spending time with her numerous cousins! She was also really looking forward to being the Vice President for the Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish Honor Society), that year. Outside of student organizations, Izzy could be found playing tennis, badminton, and flute (not at the same time of course) and hanging out with friends. She loved going out and making new friends, and was always willing to lend a helping hand to fellow Huskies!

In her role as EVP that year, Izzy's main goals were to continue to advocate for and serve the student body in even more impactful ways alongside Casey Buttke. She strove to make the senate that year feel like a community where all voices could be heard and debates were productive. She was always looking for feedback from students, and was happy to take on any new projects that were important to them.

Finally, she was extremely excited to meet all of them while also taking on that role, and having a productive and accomplished year!

She could be reached at galinkin.i@northeastern.edu.

Alex Arenas, VP for Academic Affairs

Pronouns: He/him/his
Alex was a third-year Business Administration major with concentrations in Accounting and Finance. Outside of SGA, he was also a part of the mock trial team and club trap and skeet team at Northeastern. In his free time he could be found hiking in the woods, playing tennis, or getting bubble tea! He loved trying out new foods but was always in the mood for sushi.

As Vice President for Academic Affairs, Alex's advocacy work centered around advising, co-op, study abroad, and TRACE evaluations. There was even a sub-committee, called College Expectations, that was an extension of the work done in Academic Affairs. He was committed to continuing projects from College Expectations including creating a database for all syllabi at Northeastern, as well as establishing a peer advising program for each college at Northeastern. Alex was excited to expand upon helping combined majors receive more assistance in the advising process, assist transfer students in understanding Northeastern's academic resources, and running the textbook exchange program. He was always looking for new projects to take on and welcomed any input. He could be reached at arenas.a@northeastern.edu.

Emily Perez, VP for Student Affairs

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Emily was a fifth-year majoring in Communications and English with a minor in Law and Public Policy. She was from Rochester, NY and also had dual citizenship in Spain, where a large part of her family lived. Outside of SGA, Emily enjoyed horseback riding, exploring the outdoors, reading, traveling to new places, and finding cool restaurants. As VP for Student Affairs, Emily was looking forward to creating an inclusive student affairs committee that worked to identify and fill the needs of the student body. This would be achieved by actively listening and collaborating with many student organizations on campus. Emily hoped to continue putting forth initiatives relating to mental health, post-remote learning student integration, arts promotion, Title IX, DEI, social justice, and more. Emily was very excited to start forming her committee and working with student orgs to better understand and work toward solutions to issues on campus. She hoped to continue improving and celebrating the student community through student-run projects in the Student Affairs Committee. If the work of the Student Affairs Committee sounded interesting, or if someone had a project idea or a question about the committee, they could reach out to Emily at perez.e@northeastern.edu.

Robert Neumann, VP for Student Involvement

Pronouns: He/him/his
Robert was a third-year Business Administration and Health Science combined major with a minor in Political Science from North Brunswick, New Jersey. As chair of the Student Involvement Board, Robert was in charge of overseeing board meetings and served as the liaison between SGA, the Center for Student Involvement, and on-campus clubs and organizations.

Outside of student government, you could find Robert leading tours for prospective students, playing Spikeball on Carter, or just #vibing with friends. As VP for Student Involvement, Robert’s main goal was to increase transparency and collaboration between clubs, SGA, and CSI, so do not hesitate to reach out to Robert personally at neumann.r@northeastern.edu or to the Student Involvement Board directly at sgastudentinvolvement@gmail.com.

Charlie Zhang, VP for Student Services

Pronouns: He/him/his

Kia Ora!

Charlie was a second-year candidate for a B.S. in Sociology and International Business at Northeastern University. Coming from his hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, he was excited to work with others and learn something new every day. While focused on the social sciences, he also intended to pursue minors in psychology and history. His passion was to help create measurable positive impacts within communities in the future, pursuing possible career paths in corporate social responsibility. He was also a keen kickboxing (Muay Thai) practitioner, runner, and photographer.

Charlie was always searching for more opportunities to work with students, clubs, and administrators on projects of all sizes related to housing, dining, campus recreation, information services, UHCS, public safety, on-campus vendors, the Husky Card, the Curry Student Center, and more. If you had any concerns about services at Northeastern, were interested in learning more about the project, or just wanted to say hello, you could reach out at zhang.cha@northeastern.edu.

Zach Greenwald, VP for Sustainability

Pronouns: He/him/they/them

Zach was a second-year Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outside of SGA, Zach was involved with Boston Intercollegiate Government, where they served as a policy analyst on BIG’s Governmental Affairs Committee and were a member of the Intercollegiate Affairs Committee. They were also an active member of Northeastern’s Alliance for Civilly Engaged Students and Northeastern Votes. Zach enjoyed thrifting, finding new coffee shops in Boston, Rex Orange County, and getting involved with advocacy happening around campus.

Zach was committed to the advocacy and action required to create sustainable change on campus. Their main goals for the year were building up SGA’s Green Initiatives Fund and establishing a board to review proposals submitted to the fund, expanding the board’s social media and outreach presence, collaborating with other groups and organizations on and off campus with similar goals, and educating students on issues of climate justice and policy. This was just a snippet of what Zach believed the board was capable of, and they hoped to represent the wide range of concerns Northeastern students had related to environmental sustainability. If you ever had any questions or ideas that SGA could implement to improve Northeastern, feel free to reach out to greenwald.z@northeastern.edu.

Abigail Sodergren, Chief of Staff

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Abigail was a second-year data science and business student from Albany, NY concentrating in finance. Outside of SGA, she was a member of Northeastern's cheerleading team, and she could be found trying to read a book or getting lost in Boston (literally). As Chief of Staff, she was in charge of working between members of the associations to assist with clerical tasks including updates, roster management, and finance, as well as being responsible for the recruitment and training of new senators. She could be reached at sodergren.a@northeastern.edu.

Syaad Khan, Comptroller

Pronouns: He/him/his

Syaad Khan was a third-year Political Science and Economics student from Long Island, NY. He had served as a member of the Finance Board since the Fall of 2019. As Comptroller, Syaad chaired the Finance Board which was responsible for handling the budgets of all Student Organizations that made use of the Student Activity Fee. These tasks ranged from monthly budget approvals, to helping manage and ensuring policies regarding the SAF were current, and reflective of the present. Outside of SGA, Syaad could be found spending time with his friends, sharing a good story (well he thought it was a good story anyways) or helping someone with a computer issue. He could be reached at khan.sy@northeastern.edu.

Billy Opet, Director of Information Management

Pronouns: He/him/his
Billy was a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems student from Manahawkin, New Jersey. He had been a member of SGA since Fall 2018, and had served as chair of the senate, oversaw SGA's sustainability board, and directed advocacy in areas such as campus dining, housing, residential life, and UHCS along the way. When not working on student advocacy, he could usually be found exploring the outdoors, rock climbing around Boston, or enjoying a quality pun.

As Director of Information Management, Billy advised SGA leadership on initiatives and advocacy based on information from surveying the student body on what work they would like their representative body to do for them. He also managed SGA's website, organized SGA's digital data/file system, and oversaw all technology-related whatnots. A few of the initiatives that Billy was passionate about working on that year included establishing a continuous active feedback system to help SGA gain a better understanding of what problems the student body would like solved at any given time, collecting qualitative feedback through genuine conversations with students at tabling events, and using technology to engineer a digital system so that anyone could actively participate in SGA initiatives, no matter where they were in the world. He could be reached at opet.w@northeastern.edu.

Rhea Tipnis, Executive Director of Communications

Pronouns: She/Her/hers
Rhea was a third-year Business Administration major with a concentration in Marketing, and minors in Consulting and Economics. She was from Mumbai, India and had lived there all her life! Outside of Student Government, she was the Secretary of the Boston Intercollegiate Government and was involved in Northeastern Votes. Rhea enjoyed travelling, spending time with her friends, and was passionate about public speaking and content creation. She loved meeting new people. As Executive Director of Communications, Rhea managed SGA's social media accounts and external communications and also co-chaired the Communications and Events Committee. She could be reached at tipnis.rh@northeastern.edu.

Gabrielle Barker, Executive Director of Events

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Gabrielle was a third-year Political Science major with minors in Biology and Global Health on the pre-Law track from North Reading, MA. Outside of SGA, she was involved in Greek life, undergraduate research in healthcare policy, and worked at her family restaurant in the North End (Pauli's - check it out!). As Executive Director of Events, she was responsible for the creating of SGA-sponsored events on campus. She could be reached at barker.ga@northeastern.edu.

Nicole Miranda, Parliamentarian

Pronouns: She/her/hers
Nicole was a fifth-year health science & pre-med student from Long Island, NY. Outside of SGA, Nicole was involved in student life as a peer tutor and Bouvé ambassador. She enjoyed spending her free time with friends either at local movie theaters and restaurants or in The Fens to pass a soccer ball around. Serving as Parliamentarian, Nicole assisted the chair during senate meetings and headed the Operational Appeals Board. She was so excited to work with everyone and could be reached at miranda.n@northeastern.edu!

Kate Kuznetsova, Boston Intercollegiate Government Representative

Pronouns: She/her/hers

Kate was a fourth-year Business Administration and Political Science student. She was born in Moscow, Russia, and lived in Miami, FL before joining the Northeastern community. Outside of classes and student advocacy, Kate enjoyed exploring new places all over the world, meeting new people, taking pictures, and reading motivational books. Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) was first founded in 2003 and then reorganized in 2020 to represent the 60,000+ undergraduates of current 12 member institutions in the Greater Boston Area. BIG advocated for the student population by collaborating to resolve common issues and enact positive change. As Northeastern's Representative and a Director of Intercollegiate Affairs within BIG, Kate looked forward to building relationships between member institutions to foster stronger advocacy for changes that students wanted to see in the GBA. She was excited to represent Northeastern's interests in BIG and share with NEU the organization's work. She could be reached at kuznetsova.e@northeastern.edu.

Chapin Alf, Boston Intercollegiate Government Representative

Pronouns: He/him/his

Chapin Alf was a second-year Business Administration and Computer Science major with a concentration in Supply Chain Management from Boca Raton, FL. Outside of student government, Chapin was involved in Delta Sigma Pi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, and Out in Business. He loved being outdoors (preferably by/on the water) and doing activities such as skurfing, wakeboarding, skiing, hiking, and any other adrenaline-rushing activities. As Northeastern's Boston Intercollegiate Government (BIG) Liaison, Chapin served as one of Northeastern's representatives. In BIG, he voted on behalf of the university and attended various committee meetings where he assisted on projects that dealt with schools in the Greater Boston Area (GBA). Additionally, within BIG, he served as the Director of the Rules Committee where he ensured the organization's compliance with all internal governing documents and resolutions. He could be reached at alf.c@northeastern.edu.

Pooja Srinivasan, Elections Chair

Pronouns: She/her/hers