Aurelia Espinoza

Director of Grant Operations 

Phone: (510) 987-0652
Email: aurelia.espinoza@ucop.edu

Aurelia serves as Director of Grant Operations for the Research Grants Program Office. In this role, she serves as a strategic and operational partner to RGPO’s Program and Executive leadership. RGPO awards over $100 million in new research grants annually and oversees a broad grantmaking portfolio that includes more than 500 active research grants totaling $350 million.

Aurelia oversees the Pre Award, Post Award, Grants Budget and Finance, and SmartSimple operational teams responsible for delivering centralized support to the RGPO programs. She provides strategic operational and policy direction, streamlines operational procedures to enhance reporting, executes research agreements and provides oversight, coordination and management related to all aspects of RGPO’s shared grant operations services. As a member of the RGPO Leadership team, Aurelia contributes to collaborative, solutions-oriented decision-making that balances programmatic and operational considerations across the organization.  

Prior to joining UCOP, Aurelia worked at the UC Riverside campus, serving first as Managing Director of an interdisciplinary research institute and later as Director of the Sponsored Research and Programs Department at the School of Medicine. Early in her career, she worked in the investment management and law sectors. Aurelia holds degrees from Dartmouth College and the Columbia University School of Law.