Alla Polyakova is an administrative assistant in the program department at The Chicago Community Trust. Her responsibilities include providing support for program leadership, evaluation and grant management in Education and Cross Program areas. Prior to joining the Trust in 2008, Polyakova was a Program Associate for the Edmund S. Muskie Fellowship at the U.S. State Department, where she advised international graduate students and served as a liaison between the State Department and Universities across the U.S. She also served as the Development Assistant for the Youth Renewal Fund, a nonprofit organization with offices in New York and Israel that provides supplemental education for underprivileged Israeli youth. There she provided support in project design, grant proposal writing, budgeting and event planning.

In 2007 Polyakova received a Graduate Flagship Fellowship through the National Security Education Program to study at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. Polyakova is a magna cum laude graduate of New York University in International Affairs and Russian Studies. She is fluent in Russian.