2021-2022 Leadership
Casey Buttke, President
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Casey is a fourth-year student majoring in Criminal Justice and Political Science with minors in Computer Science and Math. Prior to running for the Presidency this 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's in Sigma Kappa sorority, she is a peer tutor, she works with the DRC, and she has several part-time jobs in Boston.
Over the course of the next year, she wants to re-introduce SGA to the Northeastern student body. She is 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, knows that SGA has not been holding up the voices of Northeastern students as much as it could and should be. By this time next year, she has full faith that this leadership team can change that. Reach out to her any time at buttke.l@northeastern.edu - can't wait to hear from you!
Izzy Galinkin, Executive Vice President
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Izzy is a third year Business Administration major with concentrations in Marketing and International Business, and a minor in Spanish. She’s from Morristown, New Jersey, and is also half Hispanic with a dual citizenship in Costa Rica, where she loves spending time with her numerous cousins! She is also really looking forward to being the Vice President for the Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish Honor Society), this year. Outside of student organizations, Izzy can be found playing tennis, badminton, and flute (not at the same time of course) and hanging out with friends. She loves going out and making new friends, and is always willing to lend a helping hand to fellow Huskies!
In her role as EVP this year, Izzy’s main goals are to continue to advocate for and serve the student body in even more impactful ways alongside Casey Buttke. She will strive to make the senate this year feel like a community where all voices can be heard and debates are productive. She’s always looking for feedback from students, and is happy to take on any new projects that are important to them.
Finally, she is extremely excited to meet all of you while also taking on this role, and having a productive and accomplished year!
If you see something that could be improved upon at the University or would like to join the Senate, please don't hesitate to email her at galinkin.i@northeastern.edu
Alex Arenas, VP for Academic Affairs
Pronouns: He/him/his
Alex is a third year Business Administration major with concentrations in Accounting and Finance. Outside of SGA, he is also a part of the mock trial team and club trap and skeet team at Northeastern. In his free time you can find him hiking in the woods, playing tennis, or getting bubble tea! He loves trying out new foods but is always in the mood for sushi.
As Vice President for Academic Affairs, Alex’s advocacy work centers around advising, co-op, study abroad, and TRACE evaluations. There is even a sub-committee, called College Expectations that is an extension of the work done in Academic Affairs. He is 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 is 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 is always looking for new projects to take on and welcomes any input. If you are interested in joining Academic Affairs, College Expectations, have an idea, or just want to chat, feel free to contact Alex at arenas.a@northeastern.edu.
Emily Perez, VP for Student Affairs
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Emily is a fifth year majoring in Communications and English with a minor in Law and Public Policy. She is from Rochester, NY and also has dual citizenship in Spain where a large part of her family lives. Outside of SGA, Emily enjoys horseback riding, exploring the outdoors, reading, traveling to new places, and finding cool restaurants. As VP for Student Affairs, Emily is looking forward to creating an inclusive student affairs committee that works to identify and fill the needs of the student body. This will be achieved by actively listening and collaborating with many student organizations on campus. Emily hopes to continue putting forth initiatives relating to mental health, post remote learning student integration, arts promotion, Title IX, DEI, social justice and more. Emily is very excited to start forming her committee and working with student orgs to better understand and work toward solutions to issues on campus. She hopes to continue to improve and celebrate our student community through student run projects in student affairs committee. If the work of student affairs committee sounds interesting to you, you have a project idea you would like to build on, or you have a question about committee, please feel free to reach out to Emily at perez.e@northeastern.edu.
Robert Neumann, VP for Student Involvement
Pronouns: He/him/his
Robert is 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 is in charge of overseeing board meetings and serving as the liaison between SGA, the Center for Student Involvement, and on campus clubs and organizations.
Outside of student government, you can find Robert leading tours for prospective students, playing some Spikeball on Carter, or just #vibing with friends. As VP for Student Involvement, Robert's main goal is 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 is a second-year candidate for B.S. Sociology and International Business at Northeastern University. Coming from his hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand, he is super excited to be working with you all and learning something new every single day! While focused on the realms of social science, he also intends to pursue minors in psychology and history. His passion is to help create measurable positive impacts within communities in the future, pursuing possible career paths in corporate social responsibility. He is also a keen kickboxing (Muay Thai) practitioner, runner, and photographer.
Charlie is 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 have any concerns about services at Northeastern, interested in learning more about our project, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out at zhang.cha@northeastern.edu!
Zach Greenwald, VP for Sustainability
Pronouns: He/him/they/them
Zach is a second-year Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Outside of SGA Zach is involved with Boston Intercollegiate Government where they serve as a policy analyst on BIG's Governmental Affairs Committee and is a member of the Intercollegiate Affairs Committee. They are also an active member of Northeastern's Alliance for Civilly Engaged Students and Northeastern Votes. Zach enjoys thrifting, finding new coffee shops in Boston, Rex Orange County, and getting involved with advocacy going on around campus.
Zach is committed to the advocacy and action required to create sustainable change on campus. Their main goals for this year are building up SGA's Green Initiatives Fund and establish a board to review proposals submitted to the fund, expand the board's social media and outreach presence, collaborate with other groups and organizations on and off-campus with similar goals, and educate students on issues of climate justice and policy. This is just a snippet of what Zach believes this board is capable of, and they hope to represent the wide range of concerns Northeastern students have related to environmental sustainability. If you ever have any questions or ideas that SGA can implement to improve Northeastern, feel free to reach out to greenwald.z@northeastern.edu.
Abigail Sodergren, Chief of Staff
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Abigail is a second year data science and business student from Albany, NY concentrating in finance. Outside of SGA, she is a member of Northeastern’s cheerleading team, and she can be found trying to read a book or getting lost in Boston (literally). As Chief of Staff, she is 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. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback for Abigail, she is accessible at sodergren.a@northeastern.edu.
Syaad Khan, Comptroller
Pronouns: He/him/his
Syaad Khan is a third year Political Science and Economics student from Long Island, NY. He has served as a member of the Finance Board since the Fall of 2019. As Comptroller, Syaad chairs the Finance Board which is responsible for handling the budgets of all Student Organizations that make use of the Student Activity Fee. These tasks range from monthly budget approvals, to helping manage and ensuring policies regarding the SAF are current, and reflective of the present.
Outside of SGA, Syaad can be found spending time with his friends, sharing a good story (well he thinks it's a good story anyways) or helping someone with a computer issue. If you ever have any questions, feedback, or anything else for Syaad/the Finance Board, email him at khan.sy@northeastern.edu.
Billy Opet, Director of Information Management
Pronouns: He/him/his
Billy is a fourth year Mechanical Engineering and Energy Systems student from Manahawkin, New Jersey. He has been a member of SGA since Fall 2018, and has served as chair of the senate, overseen 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 can usually be found exploring the outdoors, rock climbing around Boston, or enjoying a quality pun.
As Director of Information Management, Billy advises 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 manages SGA’s website, organizes SGA’s digital data/file system, and oversees all technology-related whatnots. A few of the initiatives that Billy is passionate about working on this year include 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 can actively participate in SGA initiatives, no matter where they are in the world.
Want to get involved with campus advocacy? Have any burning questions? Feel free to contact Billy directly at opet.w@northeastern.edu.
Rhea Tipnis, Executive Director of Communications
Pronouns: She/Her/hers
Rhea is a third year Business Administration major with a concentration in Marketing, and minors in Consulting and Economics. She is from Mumbai, India and has lived there all her life! Outside of Student Government, she is the Secretary of the Boston Intercollegiate Government and is involved in Northeastern Votes. Rhea enjoys travelling, spending time with her friends, and is passionate about public speaking and content creation. She loves meeting new people so feel free to come up to her and say hi if you see her around campus! As Executive Director of Communications, Rhea manages SGA’s social media accounts and external communications and also co-chairs the Communications and Events Committee. If you have any ideas and questions for the SGA or would like to join the Communications and Events Committee, please don’t hesitate to reach out to her at tipnis.rh@northeastern.edu.
Gabrielle Barker, Executive Director of Events
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Gabrielle is 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 is involved in Greek life, undergraduate research in healthcare policy, and works at her family restaurant in the North End (Pauli’s - check it out!). As Executive Director of Events, she is responsible for the creating of SGA-sponsored events on campus. Feel free to reach out to Gabrielle with any questions @barker.ga@northeastern.edu.
Nicole Miranda, Parliamentarian
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Nicole is a 5th year health science & pre-med student from Long Island, NY. Outside of SGA, Nicole is involved in student life as a peer tutor and Bouvé ambassador. She enjoys 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 assists the chair during our senate meetings and heads the Operational Appeals Board. She is so excited to work with everyone and can be reached at miranda.n@northeastern.edu!
Kate Kuznetsova, Boston Intercollegiate Government Representative
Pronouns: She/her/hers
Kate is 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 enjoys 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 advocates 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 is looking forward to building relationships between member institutions to foster stronger advocacy for changes that students want to see in the GBA. She is excited to represent Northeastern’s interests in BIG and share with NEU the organization's work. If you would like to join BIG or just want to hear more about the work that we do, feel free to reach out to kuznetsova.e@northeastern.edu.
Chapin Alf, Boston Intercollegiate Government Representative
Pronouns: He/him/his
Chapin Alf is 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 is involved in Delta Sigma Pi, a co-ed professional business fraternity, and Out in Business. He loves 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 serves as one of Northeastern’s representatives. In BIG, he votes on behalf of our university and attends various committee meetings where he assists on projects that deal with schools in the Greater Boston Area (GBA). Additionally, within BIG, he serves as the Director of the Rules Committee where ensures the organization’s compliance with all internal governing documents and resolutions. If you have any questions about BIG, have an idea for a project that we can work on, or want to join the institution, feel free to reach out to him at alf.c@northeastern.edu.
Pooja Srinivasan, Elections Chair
Pronouns: She/her/hers