Institute Director and Staff
David Axelrod, AB’76
Institute Director
A University of Chicago alumnus, David Axelrod is a 35-year veteran of American politics and journalism. Prior to becoming a political consultant, Axelrod spent eight years as a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune, including a stint as the City Hall bureau chief. As a political consultant, Axelrod has managed media and communications strategy for more than 150 local, state and national campaigns. Axelrod most recently served as Senior Strategist to President Obama's successful re-election campaign. He served in that same role in then-Senator Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, before going on to serve in the White House as Senior Advisor to the President. After the 2012 campaign, Axelrod turned his focus to the Institute of Politics to help inspire and train the next generation of leaders.
Darren Reisberg
Executive Director
Darren Reisberg has served as Executive Director of the Institute of Politics since June 2012. Prior to that, and since 2005, Darren worked at the Illinois State Board of Education, most recently as General Counsel and Deputy Superintendent. In those roles, Darren counseled the State Superintendent of Education and State Board of Education on legal, policy and operational matters. Before joining the Illinois State Board of Education, Darren was an employment and labor attorney for four years at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin LLP. He also worked as a judicial law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer, JD’79. Originally from New Jersey, Darren received his JD from Yale Law School and earned his BA in political science at Duke University.
Steve Edwards
Deputy DIRECTOR, Programming
For more than two decades, Steve Edwards has covered politics and public policy as a journalist and program host. His work has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg News, PBS, and on numerous public radio stations around the United States. Most recently, he spent nearly 14 years at WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR member station, where he served as host of the acclaimed daily shows The Afternoon Shift and Eight Forty-Eight. Steve has moderated numerous candidate debates, hosted the weekly political show The Best Game in Town, and was the correspondent for a BBC documentary on Chicago’s political culture. A native of Kansas City, he was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan and earned his A.B. in political science from Amherst College.
Jan Kostner
Deputy Director, Events and Marketing
Prior to joining the Institute, Jan Kostner served as the Director of Illinois Office of Tourism (IOT), where she spearheaded the state’s tourism industry marketing and development efforts. In 2011, through her leadership, tourism expenditures in Illinois returned to pre-recession levels of $29 billion. She led the Illinois hospitality industry to successfully advocate for the passage of the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, which created BrandUSA, the country’s tourism marketing arm to the international community. Kostner also oversaw IOT’s $25 million grant program, to assist Illinois organizations and communities each year in marketing their areas. Prior to joining IOT, Kostner was a senior vice president for Chicago-based public affairs and strategic communications firm Jasculca/Terman, where she was responsible for strategic planning, new client development, and company marketing. Kostner holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.
Amin Cyntje
Senior Associate Director, Fellows Program
Prior to joining the Institute, Amin Cyntje was the director of National Journal Live, where he was responsible for building content and leading the execution of all of National Journal’s public policy programs. In this role, he worked closely with National Journal's editors, writers, and executives to build nonpartisan programs that engaged national thought leaders on issues of national import. Before joining National Journal, he served as a program manager at the Partnership for Public Service, where he developed strategy, messaging, and communications for a nationwide public education campaign to honor America’s public servants. Amin has also held positions at Global Impact, the Democratic National Committee, and in the congressional offices of Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Stephen Lynch. A native of St. Thomas, USVI, Cyntje is a graduate of the George Washington University and Bethune-Cookman College.
Esther Kang
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
From 2006 to 2013, Esther Yoon-Ji Kang was the Web editor at Chicago magazine, where she managed the daily editorial content of chicagomag.com. A multimedia journalist, she also reported, wrote, photographed, designed and produced award-winning stories for the website as well as the print magazine. Esther was also the editor of blogs by authors such as Alex Kotlowitz and Carol Felsenthal. Previously she worked as a breaking nation/world news producer for chicagotribune.com, latimes.com, and other Tribune Company news sites. Aside from her work on the Web, Esther has covered the Chicago Public Schools and juvenile court beats, and has reported and written for the Chicago Tribune. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Northwestern University and has taught undergraduate and graduate students in the journalism school.
Mallory McClaire
EVENT PLANNER
Prior to joining the Institute, Mallory McClaire worked at the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture where she assisted the Executive Director for three years. Before entering this role, she was a researcher on the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project, a groundbreaking assessment of tourism assets in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Her background in event management includes work in Millennium Park, the Chicago Cultural Center and with Mayor’s Office of Special Events. Mallory is a Chicago native and holds a B.A. in English from the University of Missouri.
Katrina Mertens
Office Manager/Executive Assistant
Since 2010, Katrina Mertens served as executive assistant to the general counsel and deputy superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education. Prior to assisting the general counsel, she served as an administrative assistant in the special education division for the Board. Katrina moved to Chicago in 2008 from Baltimore, where she worked in the narcotics unit of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office. She has an MA in counseling from Roosevelt University and a BS in criminal justice and urban studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Dillan Siegler
Senior Associate Director, Internships & Student Civic Engagement
Since 2008, Dillan Siegler has worked for the University of Chicago's Office of Career Advancement, where she was program director for UChicago Careers in Public and Social Service (UCIPSS), a program she founded in 2010. The UCIPSS Program provides comprehensive resources and opportunities to more than 1,000 UChicago students interested in careers in nonprofit, government, policy, and related sectors. Prior to founding UCIPSS, Dillan developed and managed more than 150 Metcalf internships in the public sector as a member of Career Advancement's Employer Relations and Development team. Prior to her work at UChicago, Dillan managed the Adult Training and Employment Program at CARES Chicago, a small employment-focused non-profit on Chicago's West Side. Dillan has a BA in Psychology from Yale University and an MBA from the Booth School of Business. She is very familiar with the UChicago community, having grown up and lived in Hyde Park most of her life.
Jeff Solnet
program coordinator, Internship and student civic engagement
After graduating from Harvard College this past May, Jeff Solnet came to Chicago to serve on President Obama's reelection campaign as a web developer and helped optimize and develop a record-breaking online fundraising platform. During his first year at Harvard, Jeff was elected to the Harvard Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee and, in his third year, was elected by his peers to chair the SAC. He also spent two summers coordinating the Institute's "Summer in Washington" program. During the summer of 2011, Jeff worked as an assistant product manager with Google's Politics and Public Sector product team in Washington, D.C. A native South Floridian, Jeff worked in local politics and successfully managed Frank Barbieri's campaign for the school board of Palm Beach County, the eleventh largest school district in the nation. Jeff holds an A.B. in Government with a secondary field in Computer Science from Harvard University.
Shengxiao "Sunshine" Yu
ProJECT MANAGER
Having received her BA in Comparative Human Development from UChicago in 2012, Shengxiao Yu is excited to be connected with her beloved alma mater through her role at the Institute. During her time as an undergraduate, she served as campus coordinator, and later chair, of the campusCATALYST Nonprofit Consulting Program in partnership with the Public Policy Department. She also served as the Chicago district director of the Millennium Campus Network, a Boston-based nonprofit that aims to empower and unite college students to tackle issues related to global poverty. Shengxiao has spent every summer in her college career in Latin America and is passionate about global development and human rights issues, especially in that region. She also worked as a Resident Assistant of Halperin House in South Campus Residence Hall and is looking forward to building communities on campus through civic engagement.