Operational Strategic Initiatives

Bob Neuhard

Executive Director of OSI

Bob currently serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Operational Strategic Initiatives which is charged with identifying, responding to, leading, and supporting unique initiatives and opportunities across campus on behalf of the Chancellor and the Chief Financial Officer. He specializes in building consensus in highly dynamic situations by developing comprehensive strategies and solutions to the most complicated and novel issues and opportunities.  His focus is on strategic leadership and planning, innovation, customer-centric process optimization, complex public-private alliances, and delivering transformational outcomes. ​

Bob’s vision and leadership led to the creation of UC San Diego’s lean six sigma culture, empowering and enabling thousands of staff to identify, assess, and solve issues with a customer-centric balance of efficiency and effectiveness.   Bob also introduced the use of crowdsourcing to harness the collective intelligence of campus to solve issues, share best practices, and enhance collaboration on topics ranging from health science research to the reduction of administrative burden.  ​

Bob is a licensed attorney and business professional who has served in senior leadership positions at Owens Corning, Fireman’s Fund, First Data, and Apollo where he led strategic global negotiations with governments and corporations in support of new and expanding business lines and was responsible for creating and transforming service and operational areas at each entity. 

Bob received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Environmental Studies from the University of Florida.  He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver – Sturm College of Law, with emphasis on technology law & aviation law, and served as an Editor for the Denver Journal of International Law and Policy and the Transportation Law Journal.

Angela Song

Senior Director of OSI

Angela Song began her UC San Diego career in 2003 and leads the Organizational Assessments and Strategy team at OSI. Her team’s expertise in survey design and methodology, analytics, and data visualization tools drives large-scale assessments and strategic decision-making for UC San Diego and a number of universities beyond California. Angela holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from UC Berkeley with research and management consulting background in strategic assessments and alignment, statistical modeling, and organizational development. Angela is a Prosci Change Management Practitioner, and as a Kaplan-Norton Strategy Execution Professional and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB), Angela provides training and consultation on Lean Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard methodologies for strategic planning and translating data into measurable actions and outcomes. Her current specialized focus is on delivering quantitative and qualitative data generation models for higher education, identifying opportunities for end-to-end process improvements, and bringing transparency surrounding university measures of success.

Allorah Pradenas

Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives

Allorah is the Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives for UC San Diego's Office of Operational Strategic Initiatives. As Managing Director, Allorah provides leadership and strategy for the OSI projects and programs portfolio, focused on continuous improvement, organizational effectiveness, strategic planning, and operational efficiency. Innovation-focused programs managed by her team include the Standing Committee on Service and People Oriented Administrative Culture (SC-SPOC), IdeaWave, and OSI’s Continuous Improvement & Lean Six Sigma programs.  Before joining UC San Diego in 2015, Allorah acquired over a decade of project management and leadership experience at various higher education institutions. Allorah earned her bachelor’s degree in writing from the University of Redlands and her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from UC Riverside. She is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a ProSci change management practitioner. Her current focus is on delivering strategic initiatives that drive process optimization at a campus-wide level by encouraging data-informed decision-making, building campus partner relationships and engagements, and conducting organizational reviews that identify critical needs and present innovative solutions to address the root cause of issues. Additionally, as a LEAD Fellow, Allorah serves as a campus champion for equity, diversity, and inclusion, who engages and leads crucial conversations around improving organizational learning and campus climate.

Kathryn Herrera

Strategic Communications and Administrative Officer 

Kathryn Herrera serves as the Office Administrator for the Office of Operational Strategic Initiatives. Prior to joining OSI, Kathryn worked at Columbia University as a Program Coordinator for the Institute on Social and Economic Research and Policy, the School of Business, and the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine (2011-2013). Kathryn received her B.A. from UC San Diego (2010) in International Relations: Political Science and her M.A. from Columbia University (2016) in Human Rights Studies, with an emphasis on education policy.

Allorah Pradenas

Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives

Antonio Nava

Bradley Sollenberger

Jackie Sewell

Kristin Kielich

Kristin applies industry-proven frameworks with metric-driven accountability to lead discussions at all levels of the organization across UC campuses, and within specific verticals (like UC San Diego Health System and UC Office of the President).

Kristin is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified practitioner and UC San Diego Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification instructor. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences on strategic planning, operational innovations, and collaborative business solutions. Kristin began her work developing university sustainability programs in 2007 which served as a platform for her growth in creating shared value and continuous innovation.  Kristin was awarded the 2011 UC San Diego Exemplary Staff Employee of the Year. Kristin holds an M.B.A. and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification.

Lynette Essey

LaKeshia Lindsey

LaKeshia Lindsey serves as a Senior Strategic Initiatives Analyst with OSI. Her areas of expertise include relationship building, process improvement, and small group facilitation. LaKeshia earned her B.A. from National University in Business Administration and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification from UC San Diego Extension in 2020. She takes a creative and customer-driven approach as she collaborates with teams to help identify opportunities to increase operational efficiency.

Melani Roberson

Melani is the primary point of contact for the campus crowdsourcing platform IdeaWave.  Melani Roberson serves as the Program Manager for the campus’ ideation tool and program, IdeaWave. Melani is an expert in innovation management, and consults and advises groups on campus, as well as externally, on how to achieve and implement business innovation goals. She is adept at change management and an expert group facilitator who is able to engage groups at events of any size. Melani has worked in higher education since 2008 in various capacities including development and implementation of organizational policy, process improvement, and oversight of complex business problem discovery and solutions architecting. She is an enthusiastic learner that enjoys a user-focused experience when aiding various stakeholders in the implementation of creative and innovative changes. Melani earned her M.B.A. with an emphasis in Project Management in 2013, and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from UC San Diego Extension in 2016.

Ricardo Santiago

Ricardo Santiago is a Senior Strategic Initiatives Analyst with OSI. Ricardo first pursued his interest in organizational development while working at a management consulting firm in DC where he conducted organizational assessments, process improvement efforts, and strategic planning engagements for several federal agencies. More recently, he helped lead the community engagement strategy for a nonprofit focused on preserving the historic culture and housing affordability in rapidly gentrifying Denver neighborhoods. Ricardo is a certified Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma, holds a bachelor’s in Political Science from Brown University, and a law degree from American University.

Savannah Bradley

Stephen Larkin

Angela Song

Senior Director of OSI

Cheryl Olson

Grace Guarin

Khanh Nguyen

Kristin Ly

Kristin is the primary point of contact and coordinator for UC San Diego’s campus-wide surveys (Faculty and Staff Customer Satisfaction Survey, Staff@Work Survey, and Student Satisfaction Survey).  Kristin is the Program Analyst for the Tritonlytics team within the Organizational Assessments and Strategy (OAS) unit at OSI.  Kristin also provides marketing assistance, quality assurance, and reporting support to both the internal and external survey program portfolios. She obtained her B.S. degree from San Diego State University with an emphasis on Business Management.

Paul Chan

Paul joined the Operational Strategic Initiatives Office in 2013. Currently he coordinates the reporting and analysis activities for the survey projects including UC, CSU, and other universities. Highlights of Paul’s track record of success are his integration of advanced statistical analyses to the interpretation of the campus survey results, and developing advanced level statistical reports in Tableau, which became a template and model for other UC and CSU campus deployment. Paul's professional expertise includes data mining, statistical analysis, data visualization, metrics development, and training.

Wayde Gilliam