Board of Directors

General Email

board@semcoop.com 


Officers of the Board 

President: Katie Parsons

Vice President: Ydalmi V. Noriega

Treasurer: Peter Berkerey

Secretary: Aziz Z. Huq


Board of Directors (current term)

Peter Berkery (2023-2025) (Term 1) has served as the executive director of AUPresses for almost ten years. He came to the role from Oxford University Press, where he was vice president and publisher for their US Law Division. Previous positions in academic publishing included positions at Wolters Kluwer and a division of what is now Thomson Reuters. Before the siren song of publishing lured him away, Peter began his working life in association management in Washington DC. He holds a BA in Classical Studies, an MA International Affairs, and both a JD and an LLM. In addition, he’s a certified financial planner. Peter is admitted to the bar in Maryland, DC, and Hawaii.

Lori Berko (2024 -2026) (Term 1) currently serves as Vice President and Secretary of the University of Chicago, responsible for oversight and facilitation of the institution's governance practices. Lori previously served in other leadership capacities at UChicago. Before joining the University, she worked as a real estate attorney and as a social worker.

Marcus D. Fruchter (2025-2028) (Term 1) is Administrator of the Illinois Gaming Board, where he serves as chief executive of the regulatory and law enforcement agency overseeing the state’s casinos, sports wagering and video gaming industries. His professional experience includes senior enforcement counsel at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, litigation partner at a prominent Chicago law firm, and senior policy analyst at Feeding America. A native of Hyde Park, he earned degrees from the University of Chicago Law School and Michigan State University.

Adom Getachew (2023-2025) (Term 1) is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Race Diaspora, & Indigeneity, and the College at the University of Chicago. She is author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination and co-editor of W. E. B. Du Bois: International Writings. 

Tierra Goldston (2025-2028) (Term 1) works at The University of Chicago Medicine as Associate Business Systems Analyst examining financial and operational metrics to determine root causes in system errors, areas for process improvement, and enhance vendor management. Tierra is a graduate of Howard University and is very active in Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. Tierra recently moved to Washington Park and discovered the Seminary Coop Bookstores on a Chicago Book Crawl.

Christie Henry (2022-2024) (Term 1) is Director of Princeton University Press, an independent non-profit global publisher affiliated with Princeton. Prior to PUP, she enjoyed 24 years of collaboration at the University of Chicago Press. She teaches at the Yale and Denver publishing programs and is a current board member of the Association of American Publishers and the Association of University of Presses.  

Aziz Z. Huq (2022-2024) (Term 1) is the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law. He works on topics ranging from democratic backsliding to regulating AI, and has published with Chicago, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses.  Before joining the Law School, he worked as counsel and then director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project; Senior Consultant Analyst for the International Crisis Group; and as a law clerk for Judge Robert D. Sack of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Jeff Jahns (2025-2028) (Term 1) is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a retired partner of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, with a practice in business transactional matters. He has been a member of the Seminary Coop for several decades and currently serves as Treasurer of the Caxton Club, a 130 year old Chicago bibliophilic society.

Mike Levine (2024-2026) (Term 1) had a 40+ year career in development, primarily at the University of Chicago where he was an Associate Vice President.  He recently retired from the university and is now a Vice President at Grenzebach Glier and Associates, an international fundraising consulting firm.

Natalie Moore’s (2023-2025) (Term 3) long career in journalism has taken her to Detroit, St Paul, Jerusalem, and now here to Chicago, where she is the South Side reporter for WBEZ.  She is the author or co-author of three books, including The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation (2016).  She is a graduate of Howard University and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.

Ydalmi V. Noriega (2022-2024) (Term 1), a writer and arts administrator, serves as director of programs and community engagement at the Poetry Foundation, overseeing live programming and organizational partnerships in Chicago and beyond. 

Katie Parsons (2022-2024) (Term 2) is an engagement strategist at 270 Strategies, a consulting firm founded by many in President Obama’s campaign leadership. It helps campaigns, causes, and companies engage and mobilize their audiences to take action. She graduated from the College of the University of Chicago in 2004.

State Senator Robert Peters, (2025-2028) (Term 1) a proud South Sider and Chicagoan, has dedicated his life to public service and community advocacy. As a former community organizer, he led efforts to transform our pretrial court system, lift up working families and protect our schools from closures. As a state senator, Peters has continued to advocate for the people in the 13th District and beyond, championing criminal justice reform, expanding workers’ rights and creating an economy that works for everyone.

Andrew Simnick, Ph.D. (2024-2026) (Term 1) is the Founder of Operationally, a consultancy focused on strategic and operational transformation within the cultural sector. He believes in the importance of long-term sustainability among cultural institutions, and he is eager to support the growth of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. Andrew previously led the business functions within the Art Institute of Chicago and served a consultant with McKinsey & Company, and he currently lives with his family in Bucktown.

Eric Slauter (2022-2024 Completing Vacated Seat*) (Term 1) is Deputy Dean of the Humanities and the College, Associate Professor of English, and serves as the founding director of the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The State as a Work of Art: The Cultural Origins of the Constitution and has a special interest in the history of the book—and the history of bookselling—in America. 

Connie Spreen (2023-2025) (Term 2) is the co-founder and executive director of the Experimental Station, a not-for-profit incubator of innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises on the South Side.  Its activities include the 61st Street Farmers Market, the Blackstone Bicycle Works, and many ongoing workshops, lectures, performances, and community gatherings. She holds a Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Chicago. 

Geoffrey Stone (2023-2025) (Term 1), the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law, has served on the UChicago faculty since 1973. During that time, he has served as both Dean of the Law School and Provost of the University. His primary field of scholarship has focused on the freedom of speech.