Meet Secretariat
Ciara Daly | Secretary-General
Ciara became involved in Model UN as a high school delegate, where she completed and placed at a variety of East Coast circuit conferences, including MUNCH; as a high school student, she served as Co-President for her MUN club and Director General of her high school’s conference, CHPMUNC.
Ciara served as Chief of Staff for MUNCH XXIII, an experience which she found very rewarding, and she is excited to continue as MUNCH XXIV Secretary-General. She has experience training and working with delegates through moMUNtum outreach programs, as well as extensive committee chairing and staffing experience.
Ciara is a sophomore Earth and Marine Science Major (marine biology and ecology track) and is also completing a hispanic studies minor. Outside CIRA, she is a staff writer for the Carolina Scientific, and a barista at the Meantime Coffee Co, UNC’s student-run coffee shop. She is involved in genetics research at UNC and FIU, including studying marine animals. She loves the ocean, working out, books, her cat, and her friends and family.
Kate Leonard | Director Genereal
Kate is a junior studying Environmental Science with a double minor in Chinese and Geographic Information Systems. First, serving as a crisis staffer in UNCMUNC XXII, then co-chairing MUNCHXI and UNCMUNC XII, allowed her to explore the Model UN scene. She then served as Under-Secretary-General for GAPs for MUNCH XXIII and will be crisis directing for UNCMUNC XIV.
While Kate has only participated in Model UN since her freshman year of college, she’s enjoyed every second of being a part of the community. She wishes to help cultivate the community that welcomed her with open arms and encourage more environmental Model UN committees and awareness towards environmental issues.
Outside of Model UN, you can find Kate knitting, crocheting, or embroidering under the tall trees of campus. She can also be found looking at weather radars to find the next severe weather outbreak or seeing what hurricane season has in store. She is super excited to bring MUNCHXXIV to life over the coming months.
Nicholas Longueria | Chief of Staff
Nicholas Longueira is a sophomore from Charlotte, North Carolina pursuing a double major in statistics and political science. He’s been involved with Model UN since his freshman year of high school and led his high school’s club as an officer during his sophomore year and as a co-president during his junior and senior years. He also played a key role in planning and running the virtual Queen City MUN conference held in 2020. Furthermore, he was the head chair of last year’s MUNCH ICJ committee and will serve as head chair of UNCMUNC’s Varsity Blues committee in the fall. He’s excited to bring this leadership experience to MUNCH in his role as Chief of Staff and looks forward to ensuring the conference runs smoothly.
In his free time, Nicholas is an avid reader and loves going to the gym. He’s also a member of UNC’s jiu-jitsu club and likes to run around campus when he has time. If not out and about, you’ll probably catch him playing Tears of the Kingdom on his switch or listening to Billy Joel.
Max Pollack | USG of GAs
Max is a senior from Raleigh studying Peace, War, and Defense and Political Science. This fall he interned at the State Department at the Russia Desk. Max is particularly in international security. His hobbies include coin collecting, reading, and serving as a Senator in UNC’s Student Government.
Christopher McClanahan |Co-USG of Crisis
Christopher is a sophomore from Charlotte majoring in Computer Science. He serves as Chair of the Rules and Judiciary Committee in the UNC Undergraduate Senate. He is part of CIRA’s collegiate Model UN travel team, and also is involved in the Campus Affairs branch.
Unai Cuerdo Agirre | Director of Events and Socials
Unai is a sophomore studying mathematics and minoring in stats and history. He became involved with Model United Nations from the very first day in CIRA. Besides attending conferences with the travel team, Unai was an Assistant Chair for UNCMUNC XIII, and Chair for MUNCH XXIII and UNCMUNC XIV; and is excited to collaborate with the amazing secretariat team to run a wonderful MUNCH conference!! Outside of MUN, Unai enjoys swimming, helping the environment, and learning about mathematics and computer science, and is involved in the swim club and the Renewable Energy Special Projects group.
Simar Kaur | Press and Marketing Secretary
Simar is a sophomore from Cary, NC majoring in global studies. They have recently began participating in model UN through CIRA in the past year.
Simar worked as a Co-chair in MUNCH XXIII and is chairing the Chornobyl committee for UNCMUNC XIV. Outside of Model UN, they also have a passion for reading, politics, and languages.
Kevin O’Keefe | Director of Communications
Kevin is a sophomore from Scituate MA majoring in Chemistry. Starting as a freshman in highschool, he has enjoyed MUN for the past five years. When not helping with CIRA, Kevin enjoys swimming, running, and is a member of Alpha Chi Sigma, a professional fraternity for those pursuing a career in the chemical sciences. Kevin worked as a staffer for MUNCH XXIII and is chairing the JCC Reconquista committee for UNCMUNC XIV.
Rishi Kulkarni | Chief Financial Officer
Rishi Kulkarni is a senior from Charlotte pursuing a double major in Economics and Business Administration. As MUNCH’s Chief Financial Officer, he is excited to apply his business skillset to his love of CIRA and Model UN. Rishi looks forward to finding new ways to grow CIRA’s footprint on campus and create new opportunities for members. On the off chance you catch him not doing work, he’s probably playing some golf, reading up on ancient history, or boring his friends with obscure Star Wars facts.
Joshua Alexander | USG of GAPs
Josh is a rising sophomore from New City, New York, majoring in Business Administration and Political Science. He has been involved with Model United Nations for over 5 years, having attended conferences throughout high school as the President of his school’s Model United Nations team.
Currently, Josh serves in the UNCMUNC XIV Secretariat as its Director of Logistics. He has fostered a passion for organizing conferences from the ground up, and he cannot wait to work on and improve the MUN experience for all delegates that attend MUNCH! At UNC, he was involved in UNCMUNC XXII and MUNCH XXIII as a crisis staffer and GAP chair, respectively. Additionally, he works extensively with CIRA’s nonprofit branch, moMUNtum, to make MUN more equitable and accessible for students globally.
Outside of MUN, Josh is fascinated by business, politics, government, and the intersection between public policy and the private sector. In his free time, Josh loves writing stories, watching movies, travel, and late night Subway trips with friends. He is excited to work with all members of Secretariat to organize, manage, and bring to life yet another successful MUNCH conference!
Connor Lopez | Co-USG of Crisis
Connor is a rising junior from Chapel Hill, North Carolina double majoring in History and Peace, War, & Defense with a minor in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He hopes to pursue constitutional law in his post-UNC time. He has participated in Model UN in a variety of roles since sophomore year of high school. At UNC Connor has worked with CIRA in MUNCH and UNCMUNC including positions as Delegate, Chair, Co-chair, and Crisis Director. He has participated on the CIRA Travel Team as a delegate, and was part of the leadership of CIRA as Travel Team Captain.
In his time outside Model UN, Connor enjoys being part of the Carolina Rock Climbing Club and is an avid climber who works for our Universities climbing program. Connor all around enjoys the outdoors, and in his free time will always try to explore the wonderful forests of North Carolina.
Though he is a double major his personal passion lies more on the historical side, and always enjoys discovering new and enlightening parts of history. He is excited to see the many great stories that Model UN always brings to people, and hopes to see new levels of cooperation between everyone for all the challenges they will face.
Nicole Boots | Undersecretary General of Design and Website
Nicole is a sophomore student at UNC studying Public Policy, with minors in Education and Studio Art. As a First–Year, she had been recommended to get involved with Carolina’s international relations club from an upperclassman, and has since become involved with multiple branches of CIRA including: the UNC Model UN Travel Team, Journal of Foreign Affairs at Carolina and helping put on UNCMUNC and MUNCH!