2023-24 Alumni-in-Residence Bios

Rodrigo García-Verdú

MA’98, PhD’02 Economics
IMF Resident Representative in Cabo Verde

Rodrigo currently works as the International Monetary Fund’s Resident Representative in Cabo Verde, based in Praia. In this capacity he works closely with the authorities in the Ministry of Finance and at the Banco de Cabo Verde in the implementation of the Fund-supported program. He joined the IMF in 2012. In addition to the African Department, he has also worked in the Middle East and Central Asia Department and in the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department. Prior to joining the IMF, he was a staff member of the World Bank, where he worked in the Latin America and Caribbean region. He also worked for the Mexican Government as deputy assistant secretary at the Ministry of International Trade (Secretaría de Economía), and at the Treasury Department (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público). He began his career as a Research Economist at Banco de México, Mexico’s Central Bank. He received a BA in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City.

In Washington DC, he has stayed connected with the University of Chicago through his involvement with the Chicago Economics Society, a group of alumni from all divisions, professional schools, and the College interested in Chicago Economics. The road that led him to be based in Cabo Verde, and to have previously worked on Brazil at the World Bank and on Angola at the IMF, began at the University of Chicago. He received a grant from the Kenneth C. Griffith Department of Economics to present part of his dissertation at the 2000 Annual Meetings of the Latin America and Caribbean Economic Association in Rio de Janeiro, and a Field Research Grant from the Center for Latin American Studies to do field research in Brazil. Most importantly, he did coursework on Portuguese for Spanish Speakers with Professor Ana Maria Lima.

Roli Gostelow

PhD'20 Sociology
Program Manager for Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Roli Gostelow is Program Manager for Laboratory Directed Research and Development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the largest multi-programmatic national laboratory in the Department of Energy system. She manages and administers processes relating to the laboratory’s discretionary research portfolio, which is focused on strengthening the lab’s ability to respond to energy, environmental, and national security challenges, promoting its scientific and technical vitality, and developing its base of world-class capabilities and expertise.

Earlier in her career, Gostelow was a systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, acting as Deputy Lead for Flight Rule Development for the Mars Science Laboratory mission and Curiosity rover.  She also worked on other engineering-related elements of Martian-surface operations for the Curiosity rover and on software quality improvement across the lab.

Gostelow's doctoral research focused on the stigmatization of people with schizophrenia and the economic underpinnings of cross-country variation in its nature and intensity.  In addition, to her MA and PhD in Sociology, she holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics, also from the University of Chicago.

Ryoko Imai

PhD’12 Comparative Human Development
Principal Research Scientist, Hitachi

Ryoko Imai is a Principal Research Scientist in Hitachi R&D. She brings her background of cognitive psychology and cultural anthropology to study the intersection between technology and society. She specializes in societal implications of emerging technologies and has spent the last few years studying ethical and inclusive AI. Her other areas of expertise include futures-thinking, design research, and sustainability; she combines social science perspective and futures-thinking to explore the role of technology for a sustainable future.

She began exploring the possibilities of non-academic careers during her graduate program at University of Chicago, and she looks forward to speaking with students interested in careers in technology and private sector research.

Rupal Patel

MA'05 CIR
Ex-CIA | 2x CEO | Bestselling Author | Leadership & Talent Development Consultant | Named "One of the Most Influential Women of 2023

Rupal Patel’s high-octane career has taken her from military briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages. During her thrilling career as an analyst and field agent at the CIA, she advised Four-Star Generals, earned War Zone Service Medals, and was recognized by the CIA Director for “superior support to the President of the United States.”

After leaving the CIA, she earned her MBA and started her first award-winning business over a decade ago. Called a “Power Woman” by Harper's Bazaar Magazine and a “super-strategist” by her clients, Rupal is a sought-after international speaker, corporate consultant, and executive advisor who has spoken in front of thousands and delivered leadership and talent development programs for Fortune 500 companies around the globe and the White House.

Her trailblazing work has been incorporated into the MBA and Executive MBA programs at elite business schools across the US and UK, and her commitment to developing the next generation of leaders and change-makers extends into her pro bono work for Virgin Startup and Techstars, and as Entrepreneur in Residence at London Business School.

She is the author of the international best-seller From CIA to CEO: Unconventional Life Lessons for Thinking Bigger, Leading Better, and Being Bolder, which has been translated into two Chinese-language formats and been hailed as an “essential manual” and “one of the best business books,” and her recent TED talk explores the power of “owning your weird” to unleash personal excellence.

Erica Simmons

PhD'12 Political Science
Booth Fowler Professor of Political Science and International Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Erica Simmons is Professor of Political Science and International Studies and holds the Department of Political Science Booth Fowler Professorship. In 2023 she was awarded a Romnes Faculty Fellowship by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was also recognized by the American Political Science Association with the David Collier Mid-Career Award for her contributions to qualitative methods.  Simmons also holds a courtesy appointment with the Department of Sociology.

Simmons’s work is motivated by an interest in contentious politics, particular in Latin America. She is the author of Meaningful Resistance: Market Reforms and the Roots of Social Protest in Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which was awarded the 2017 Charles Tilly award for distinguished contribution to scholarship on collective behavior and social movements. She is currently working on two book projects, one on target response to social mobilization and another on the intersection of resource extraction, redistribution, and indigenous politics in Latin America. Her work on contentious politics has appeared in World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, and Theory and Society, among others.

Simmons also writes on ethnographic and qualitative methods, co-editing (with Nicholas Rush Smith) Rethinking Comparison: Innovative Methods for Qualitative Political Inquiry (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and co-authoring articles in Comparative Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research.  She is currently working with Smith on a new project on approaches to generalizability. Her qualitative methods work has twice been recognized with the Sage Paper Award for the best paper developing or applying qualitative methods presented at the American Political Association Annual Meeting.