Neurobiology
UChicago, PhD 2011
Cristi is the Senior Program Officer for Medical Research at the Circle of Service Foundation, a Chicago-based philanthropic foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2023, Cristi worked for eight years as a technology transfer professional at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, managing the evaluation and dissemination of deep tech innovations into the marketplace. She also served as director of operations and strategy for a social care research laboratory at the University of Chicago, leading grant development and the growth of a hospital-based food pantry system. Cristi has a BS in zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in neurobiology from the University of Chicago, where she studied how food scarcity impacts the dopamine system and energy expenditure decisions. Cristi is a recipient of the NIH’s predoctoral National Research Service Award, and a graduate of Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation and UChicago’s Booth School of Business’s Executive Program for Emerging Leaders. She’s been a radio DJ, a bass player, a cheese maker, and a butterfly caretaker. She’s never run a marathon, but she did spend ten days on a silent meditation retreat and has a lot to say about it.

Biochemistry
UAB, PhD 1992
Dr. McGovern has built high-impact programs in science philanthropy for more than twenty years. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, working to extend the Fund’s impact in new directions by building partnerships, creating new programs, and working across the organization to promote creative program development and effective grantmaking. She also serves as the Gertrude Elion Endowed Program Officer, managing the Fund’s research investments in infectious diseases and in climate change and human health, as well as its policy and practical investments in understanding and enhancing the career development of newly trained scientists. She is a biochemist with scientific interests in how potentially infectious microbes sense and react to their environments. She is a fellow of the American Society of Microbiology, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund serves and strengthens society by nurturing a diverse group of leaders in biomedical sciences to improve human health through education and powering discovery in frontiers of greatest need.