Our Team
Kyle Long joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change in June 2021. He works closely with the Associate Vice President and Directors to develop the change strategy for the University, identify areas of opportunity, and strategize about how to bring optimal solutions to the University’s most pressing challenges.
Before coming to Northwestern, Kyle was UNESCO Co-Chair of International Education for Development at the George Washington University, Director of Higher Education Research for Hanover Research, and inaugural Director of the U.S. Office for the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani.
Kyle serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the American University of Iraq Foundation, a 501(c)(3)-designated charitable organization that supports liberal arts education in Iraqi Kurdistan. He is also a Fulbright Specialist (2021-25) and non-resident Research Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California (2022-24). His research focuses on foreign interference in higher education and overseas American universities.
Kyle earned a Ph.D. in International and Comparative Education from Columbia University (NY), M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College (MD), and B.A. in Classics from Wabash College (IN).
Practice Areas
- executive consultation, organizational assessment, vision and strategy development, project management, university best practices
Aspasia Apostolakis Miller joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change in 2012. Her work entails facilitating organizational change initiatives collaborating with academic and administrative leaders to achieve both incremental and transformational change. She assists with planning and executing programs that foster and support a culture of change at the University and offers leadership coaching designed to meet the development needs of senior professionals and executives whose objectives are to be agents of positive change.
Before working at OSC, Aspasia held several leadership roles in Alumni Relations and Development at Northwestern. She was instrumental in the organizational growth and restructuring of the Alumni Relations office and was responsible for planning and implementing new programs and services designed to engage alumni across all life stages. Prior to Northwestern Aspasia was a human resources executive for two major corporations in the private sector. She is a member of the Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (NCCI) Board of Directors.
Aspasia earned a MS from Northwestern in Managerial Communication and a BBA from George Washington University in Business Administration/Marketing. She also earned certificates in leadership coaching and nonprofit management at Northwestern.
Practice Areas
- executive consultation, organizational assessment, vision and strategy development, stakeholder engagement, leadership coaching
Mark Manderino joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change in October 2019. In this role he partners and engages with school and central unit leaders to facilitate and support change initiatives that aim to enhance organizational structures, processes, strategies, and overall effectiveness at the University.
Immediately prior to joining OSC, Mark served as Director of Planning and Assessment for Student Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, including a one-year appointment as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Engagement. Mark previously worked at Northwestern from 2002-2006 in Student Affairs and Alumni Relations and Development. He has additionally held administrative roles at DePaul University and Cal Poly.
Mark has 20 years of experience working in higher education in progressively responsible, cross-functional, administrative leadership roles across institutional types. His experience has primarily focused in the areas of student life and engagement, co-curricular assessment, and facilitating unit, division, and university level change processes and strategic initiatives.
Mark earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago, M.S. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University, and a B.A. in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Practice Areas
- executive consultation, organizational assessment, structure and process improvement, stakeholder engagement
Rebecca Pinchuk joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change in 2015 and has served in a number of roles over that time, and was mostly recently promoted to Director. She provides internal consulting to the University, facilitating data-gathering processes that emphasize multiple perspectives and working with leaders to implement resulting changes.
Before joining the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change, Rebecca worked in a Developmental Psychology lab at the University of Chicago, conducting early childhood education research, drafting research papers, and managing and analyzing participant data.
Rebecca is a dual-degree holder from Northwestern University, with a M.S. in Higher Education Administration and Policy and a B.A. in Psychology. Her areas of interest and expertise focus on data analysis and translating that data into effective stories that drive to action. She is passionate about learning and exploring the best ways to communicate complex detail into effective narrative arcs that lead to greater comprehension and change.
Practice Areas
- survey design, qualitative and quantitative data methods, stakeholder engagement, communications, data visualization
Natali Petkova joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change (OSC) in February of 2019. As Senior Project Administrator, Natali partners with OSC’s Directors to support a variety of strategic efforts from planning through implementation. She authors and edits reports; produces a wide range of communications and marketing collateral; designs and administers surveys; collects, analyzes, and presents qualitative and quantitative data; and conducts primary and web-based secondary research, among other contributions. Natali also supports OSC’s Best Practices Forum and Change Management Training.
Before coming to Northwestern, Natali was an analyst at a global management consulting firm where, in addition to being a member of client-advising teams, she focused on efforts to build clients’ functional capabilities and assess organizational workplace cultures. She has also held positions at 1) a district congressional office where she handled day-to-day operations and constituent communications and 2) a Chicago-based political and financial consulting firm where she served clients in their public affairs and campaign efforts.
In 2017, Natali graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Politics and a certificate of proficiency from the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society.
Practice Areas
- project management, organizational assessment, data gathering and analysis, stakeholder communications, design of creative approaches and solutions
S. Darrick Northington
Office Administrator
Office: 1800 Sherman, Suite 205, Evanston Campus
Phone: 847-491-3349
E-mail: darrick@northwestern.edu
Darrick joined the Office of Organizational Strategy and Change in July of 2022.
Darrick earned his bachelor's in both Religious Studies and Philosophy from Indiana University, and a master's degree from Harvard University.
