Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko (he/him) is Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate College
In his role as Dean of the Graduate College, Chodzko-Zajko leads campus efforts in setting policies, defining standards, and enabling excellence in graduate programs, graduate research, and graduate student life. With graduate programs in more than 100 disciplinary areas, the Graduate College at the University of Illinois fosters a vibrant campus community of scholars. Graduate students and faculty at Illinois enjoy an intellectual environment that reaches across the Arts, Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Engineering to create, challenge, and transform knowledge.
In his professional life, Chodzko-Zajko remains active in the dissemination of information about healthy aging through his work on several major professional advisory boards. He served on the World Health Organization committee that developed the WHO Guidelines for Physical Activity among Older Persons. Chodzko-Zajko was the Principal Investigator for a series of projects charged with developing a national strategy for promoting healthy aging in the USA. He currently serves as chair of the Executive Committee of the AAU Association of Graduate Schools and is chair of the ETS Graduate Education Advisory Council. Chodzko-Zajko was the founding Editor of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity from 1992-2002. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Exercise and is a Past-President of the American Kinesiology Association. Prior to assuming his current position, Chodzko-Zajko served for many years as the head of the department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Associate Provosts
Zeynep Madak-Erdogan
Associate Provost for Graduate Education
Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (she/her) is a Professor of Nutrition and University Scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and holds the Sylvia D. Stroup Scholarship in Nutrition and Cancer. She serves as Associate Director for Cancer Research, Training, and Education at the Cancer Center at Illinois. Her research examines how environmental exposures, social stressors, and hormonal biology interact to influence cancer outcomes, with the goal of improving prevention and treatment across patient populations. Since joining the University of Illinois, she has focused her research on differences in cancer outcomes linked to environmental and social factors, including in breast, lung, and prostate cancer.
She has mentored doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduates, and early-career faculty and researchers, and has participated in several graduate training programs designed to introduce students and postdoctoral researchers to cancer research careers. A former member of the Graduate College Executive Committee, she joined the Graduate College as a Faculty Fellow in Fall 2022 and was named Associate Dean in 2023, serving as part of the dean's leadership team and advising the dean broadly on graduate education.
As Associate Provost for Graduate Education, Madak-Erdogan continues to collaborate with the Graduate College on projects related to graduate student success and resilience, with a portfolio that includes best practices and resources for mentoring across the Graduate College's doctoral and graduate programs and graduate learning outcomes.
Alexis Thompson
Associate Provost for Graduate Student Success
Alexis Thompson (she/her) oversees the Graduate College Student Success team and the Access and Engagement team. She assists students and departments with effective problem-solving. She is committed to providing resources and support to help graduate students excel. Alexis also plays an active role in many Graduate College events, including the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony.
Thompson completed bachelor of science degrees in Chemistry and Physics from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Assistant Provosts
Lisa R. Abston
Assistant Provost for Graduate Access and Engagement
Lisa R. Abston provides strategic leadership for initiatives that expand access to graduate education, strengthen pathways into advanced study, and cultivate environments where graduate students can thrive. In this role, she oversees recruitment and pathway programs, graduate recruitment fellowship initiatives, and partners with external constituents, while leading efforts that support research opportunities, mentoring, and student success. Lisa also provides oversight for the Graduate College Dean’s Fellowships, a recruitment fellowship program designed to expand access to graduate education for talented students who have encountered barriers to pursuing graduate study. Before joining the Graduate College, Abston accumulated more than 18 years of leadership experience designing and directing national, grant-funded programs focused on expanding educational opportunity, strengthening research pathways, and fostering student success.
Abston earned a B.S. in Biology (Pre-Medicine) from Chicago State University and a Ph.D. in the Interdepartmental Biological Sciences Program from Northwestern University. She completed a National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship in respiratory biology at the University of Chicago.
Derek Attig
Assistant Provost for Graduate Career & Professional Development
Derek Attig (they/them) oversees Graduate College career development services and develops new strategies to help graduate students succeed at the university and beyond. Attig previously served as President of the Graduate Career Consortium, the leading professional organization in the field, and they have collaborated extensively with scholarly associations like the American Historical Association.
Before joining the Graduate College in 2015, Attig worked in nonprofit marketing and advised graduate students at the university’s Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning. Attig holds a B.A. in History and Women’s Studies from Beloit College and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Charlotte Bauer
Assistant Provost for Graduate Communications and Strategic Planning
Charlotte (she/her) leads the communications, data, and IT teams in the Graduate College and serves as the Chief Communications Officer for the college. In this role, she contributes to many Graduate College and campus initiatives to improve the experiences of graduate students and graduate programs.
She holds a BFA in studio arts and worked in advertising for more than a decade before earning an MA and PhD in Art History, specializing in the formation of medieval universities and book trade. Forever curious about how we create, transmit and preserve knowledge, her research interests include the history of the universities and all things related to the history of the book as a technology.
Allison McKinney
Assistant Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs
Allison McKinney provides leadership and coordination for the Graduate College's academic affairs functions, including graduate academic policy, degree certification, student records, petitions, academic standing, and graduate program governance. She serves as a key advisor on graduate education policies, helping ensure compliance with university standards while advancing strategic priorities and innovation in graduate education. Allison also serves as the Graduate College's liaison with Illinois Human Resources on matters related to the graduate employee collective bargaining agreement. In this role, she is committed to providing guidance, consultation, and collaborative problem-solving support to students, faculty, staff, and academic units across campus. McKinney is coordinator for the Graduate College Executive Committee and the Council of Assistant and Associate Deans for Graduate Education. She also serves as the Graduate College's ex officio representative on the Senate Educational Policy Committee.
McKinney earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Eastern Illinois University and a master's degree in Human Resource Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has served the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for more than two decades, holding progressively responsible leadership positions within the Graduate College and contributing extensively to graduate academic policy, governance, student services, and academic administration.
Catherine Ocen
Assistant Provost for Graduate Administration and Budget
Elizabeth Spark
Assistant Provost for Graduate Admissions and Enrollment
Elizabeth Spark oversees graduate admissions operations and enrollment management processes. With more than 20 years of experience in graduate admissions and student services at Illinois, her work focuses on advancing holistic admissions, monitoring international higher education trends, navigating the complexities of evolving student visa policy, and collaborating with peer institutions to develop innovative admissions and enrollment strategies.
Spark holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership with a concentration in Global Studies in Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is an active member of the National Association for Graduate Enrollment Management (NAGAP), serves on the NAGAP Education Committee, and is an alum of the NAGAP Leadership Academy (2019–2020). She also serves on the ETS TOEFL Product Advisory Board, providing institutional feedback on the ongoing development and enhancement of the TOEFL assessment.
Ken Vickery
Assistant Provost for Graduate Fellowships
Ken Vickery is Assistant Provost for Graduate Fellowships. In this role, he oversees the Office of External Fellowships, the Graduate College's internal fellowship and grant competitions, and the Fellowships Office. He manages the campus’s limited submission competitions for external fellowships, conducts proposal-writing workshops, and individually advises graduate students applying for grants and fellowships. He is committed to developing resources to help students pursue external funding and, for those who have received such funding, to helping ensure they can maximize the benefits of their awards.
Vickery earned a B.A. in history from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh. Before arriving at Illinois in 2009, he served as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard University.