Moreno joins department as grants and contracts associate
Moreno joins department as grants and contracts associate Heading link
Itzel Moreno joined ECE’s business office as a grants and contracts associate in April. She has been with the university since 2021, working in a similar role with the UIC School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.
She looks forward to serving the needs of the faculty and is interested in learning more and growing in her career.
“I’ve worked with federal, state, and private grants but not related to research, so that is new to me,” Moreno said. “I like to learn new things.”
Moreno brings an extensive background in managing pre-award and post-award grant activities and has experience in financial roles with the Cook County Government and various Chicago non-profits. She was an accounting analyst with the county and served first as an accountant and then as the director of finance for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. She also worked as a grant accountant for the Spanish Coalition for Housing, and as an accounting assistant for the Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly, or HOME.
“I’ve always been an activist,” Moreno said. “I learned that from my family.”
Moreno began her undergraduate education in her home country, Mexico. Her single mom raised her and her sister, so things weren’t easy growing up. Among other things, they lacked a phone and a computer. Her good grades earned her scholarships to college, and she said she relied on friends and labs on campus for computer access.
She relocated to the U.S. after meeting her husband, learned English, and began attending junior college. She ultimately received her undergraduate degree from Saint Xavier University in Chicago.
Moreno sat for the Certified Research Administrator exam this month and is pursuing an MBA here at UIC.
Moreno, her husband, and two middle-school-aged children live in Chicago.