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Rustandy Center Leadership

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation is Chicago Booth’s destination for people tackling complex social and environmental problems. Its leadership blends academic expertise with real-world experience at nonprofits, for-profit businesses, and in government. That mix is required, as the lines separating these institutions are blurring—with for-profits adopting social missions, and nonprofits recognizing that business skills are needed to scale their efforts.

Email the Rustandy Center staff with questions or concerns.

Marianne Bertrand

Marianne Bertrand

Faculty Director and Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics

Marianne Bertrand is a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Center for Economic Policy Research, and the Institute for the Study of Labor. Professor Bertrand is an applied microeconomist whose research covers the fields of labor economics, corporate finance, and development economics.

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Robert H Gertner

Robert H. Gertner

John Edwardson Faculty Director and Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Strategy and Finance

Robert H. Gertner has been on the Chicago Booth faculty since 1986. His research interests include strategic decision making, corporate finance, organization structure, theory of the firm, and social enterprises.

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Caroline Grossman

Caroline Grossman, ’03

Executive Director and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Strategy

Caroline Grossman is responsible for leading the center’s work to serve as a destination for people committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to positively impact humanity.

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Tali Griffin

Tali Griffin

Senior Director of Marketing, Programs, and Partnerships

Tali Griffin leads the center's long-term strategic growth through collaborative partnerships with university and social sectors partners, foundations and corporations, and the center's donor community. 

 

Liz Jellema

Liz Jellema

Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives

Liz Jellema leads operations and initiatives to enable the center’s growth and impact. Her work aligns strategy with organizational development and marketing to influence social sector innovation.

Salma Nassar

Salma Nassar

Director of Research Initiatives 

Salma Nassar leads the center’s work to support ground-breaking research on the social sector and complex social and environmental issues. She works with Booth faculty and PhD students to develop innovative research partnerships with nonprofits, for profits, and public sector organizations and oversees the center’s social sector data hub.

 

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation Staff

Zeynep Aksoy Ata

Zeynep Aksoy Ata

Associate Director, Marketing and Brand Strategy

Zeynep Aksoy Ata develops and leads data-driven marketing strategies to grow the center’s brand. She also supports executing the center’s event and program marketing to generate leads and engage the center's core audiences.

Patience Baach

Patience Baach

Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives

Patience Baach manages the center’s internal impact measurement work in Chicago and Hong Kong. She provides strategic and administrative support for initiatives such as the center’s social impact data hub and operations systems and procedures. 

Ally Batty

Ally Batty

Senior Associate Director, Marketing and Communications 

Ally Batty leads marketing and communications strategy for the center with a focus on global and strategic initiatives.

Alissa Bolz

Alissa Bolz, AB ’07

Associate Director, Research Partnerships and Strategy

Alissa Bolz catalyzes research projects focused on the social sector and complex social and environmental issues. She develops strategic partnerships between Booth faculty and for profit, nonprofit, and public sector organizations and manages data sourcing and collection efforts.

Wai-Sinn Chan

Wai-Sinn Chan, MBA ’02, MPP ’02

Senior Associate Director, Social Sector Engagement Programs

Wai-Sinn Chan leads the Rustandy Center’s social sector engagement strategy and programming for students and alumni. She also collaborates with Booth Career Services and other partners to develop new initiatives and resources for alumni interested in leveraging their business toolkit to work in social impact or engage in nonprofit board service.

Iris Choi

Iris Choi

Assistant Director, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Programme on Social Innovation

Iris Choi is responsible for managing the center’s programming in Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong Jockey Club Programme on Social Innovation.

Lenese Clark

Lenese Clark

Office Manager

Lenese Clark supports the center’s internal operations and initiatives. In collaboration with the director of operations and strategic initiatives, she facilitates the development and implementation of operational procedures related to HR, IT, accounting, administrative support, and team collaboration to promote efficiency across the center’s goals.

Will Colegrove Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation

Will Colegrove

Senior Associate Director, Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program

Will Colegrove is responsible for leading the Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program, including cultivating the pipeline for the John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) from across the university. He also leads programming on funding social impact, including impact investing experiential learning opportunities like MIINT, Invest for Impact, and the Total Impact Portfolio Challenge.

Ali Galloway

Ali Galloway

Assistant Director, Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program

Ali Galloway is responsible for supporting the Edwardson Social Entrepreneurship Program which includes the John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) and programs and events that enable students to learn about social entrepreneurship, impact investing, venture philanthropy, and social sector innovation.

Maddalena Grignani

Maddalena Grignani

Research Professional

Maddalena Grignani is a research professional at the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. She is responsible for supporting academic research projects led by the Rustandy Center and Chicago Booth faculty, focused on addressing complex social and environmental issues.

Francis Hon

Francis Hon

Director for Hong Kong Initiatives

Francis Hon oversees the operations of the center’s activities in Hong Kong, and helps to plan and establish a growing presence of the Rustandy Center in Asia.

Emma Kolander

Emma Kolander

Assistant Director, Event and Program Marketing

Emma Kolander manages marketing efforts for the center’s global portfolio of programming, highlighting the growing community of Booth students, alumni, and faculty working to address social issues.

Maggie Li

Jingwei Maggie Li

Research Professional

Jingwei Maggie Li is a research professional at the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. She is responsible for supporting academic research projects led by the Rustandy Center and Chicago Booth faculty, focused on addressing complex social and environmental issues.

Rose OBrien

Rose O'Brien

Program Manager

Rose O’Brien manages social sector engagement programs related to civic impact, meaningful volunteerism, and sustainability. She provides event planning, research, and logistical support and also assists with the center’s strategic growth, partnerships, and social entrepreneurship programs. 

Gina Potthoff

Gina Potthoff

Senior Assistant Director, Marketing and Communications

Gina Potthoff leads content marketing for the Rustandy Center and also drives the center’s event and program marketing efforts. She works to highlight the center’s global portfolio of programming and growing community of Booth students, alumni, and faculty working to address social issues.

Greg Saldutte

Greg Saldutte

Research Professional

Greg Saldutte is a research professional at the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. He is responsible for supporting academic research projects led by the Rustandy Center and Chicago Booth faculty, focused on addressing complex social and environmental issues.

Prentiss Koldyke

Prentiss Smith

Assistant Director, Programs

Prentiss Smith leads programs related to the area of social sector engagement. This includes student group support, meaningful volunteering programs, and career-related programs and events.

Rustandy Center
Executives in Residence

Dave Ellis

Dave Ellis

Social Entrepreneurship

Dave serves as cofounder, managing director, and executive director of portfolio businesses at Flow Equity, a United States-based venture development business focused on developing the traditional, rural poultry sector in Eastern Africa. Its flagship enterprise, EthioChicken, is the market leader in Ethiopia, employing more than 1,300 people and reaching more three million smallholder households annually with high-yielding chicks and feed. Flow Equity is also replicating its model in Rwanda and Uganda through its business Uzima Chicken.  Ellis started his career with Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core and as a director of Assetmap. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Northwestern University where he earned an AB in political science.  

Brian Fabes

Brian Fabes

Civic Impact

Brian Fabes is managing director of the Corporate Coalition, a collaborative of more than 30 Chicago companies committed to using their assets, capabilities, and employees to address economic inequities in the region. For the past 15 years, Fabes served as chief executive officer of Civic Consulting Alliance, where he forged citywide collaborations with more than 300 organizations. Working with leaders of most major public sector institutions, CCA and its partners played a central role in many of the most significant public and civic efforts in Chicago. Before joining CCA, Fabes was senior vice president at National Louis University, associate principal at McKinsey & Company, and associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Arizona.

 
Sonny Garg

Sonny Garg, AB ’89, MBA ’00

Civic Impact

Sonny Garg, AB ’89, MBA ’00, is a seasoned executive who has led organizations through critical points of inflection, including large-scale integrations and disruptive innovation. Currently, Garg leads the energy solutions team at Uptake Technologies, a predictive analytics software company focused on the industrial sector. He is also Henry Crown leadership fellow at the Aspen Institute, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, a guest lecturer at Chicago Booth, and board member of MB Financial, Project&, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and the Invisible Institute. Previously, Garg has served as chief information and innovation officer at Exelon Corporation, an assistant to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and as a White House fellow under President Clinton.

Daphne Mazarakis

Daphne Mazarakis, ’99

Sustainable Food & Entrepreneurship

Daphne Mazarakis is a food and sustainability entrepreneur, advisor, and former CPG (consumer packaged goods) executive. In her current role, Mazarakis serves as a strategic advisor to Grow Forward, a Venture Studio specializing in indoor food production. Mazarakis is also a board member, investor, and acting marketing director to LocalCoho, an early-stage land-based operation growing sustainably raised coho salmon. In her prior work, Mazarakis was the CEO of FairAcre Traders, a company that worked with mid-sized farms to market and distribute traceable, farm-identified produce; she sold the operation in 2017. Mazarakis began her career in CPG with Kraft Foods followed by Tula Foods, her first startup company. 

 

Dorri McWhorter

Dorri McWhorter

Nonprofit Engagement

Dorri McWhorter is CEO of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, where since 2013 she has worked to transform the 140-year-old social service agency into a 21st century social enterprise. McWhorter, who has over 20 years of experience in large-scale change management consulting, led the YWCA’s expansion of digital services with the launch of YShop.org (e-commerce platform), womenshealthexchange.org (health insurance and information), and the MPWR, pronounced “empower”, mobile app (community engagement).  She also helped develop an exchange traded fund (ETF) for women’s empowerment in partnership with Impact Shares. Previously, McWhorter was a partner at accounting firm Crowe Horwath LLP and has held senior positions with Snap-on Incorporated and Booz Allen Hamilton. She has won numerous innovation awards, including being a 2019 Inductee in the Chicago Innovation Hall of Fame.

Priya Parrish Headshot

Priya Parrish, ’09

Impact Investing

Priya Parrish is an adjunct assistant professor of strategy at Chicago Booth and a managing partner at Impact Engine, a venture capital and private equity firm investing in companies driving positive impact in economic empowerment, education, environmental sustainability, and health. She also advises investment firms and asset owners developing and managing impact investment strategies. Previously, Parrish was chief investment officer at Schwartz Capital Group, a leading single family office investing capital across public and private markets globally, and a senior member of the investment team at Aurora Investment Management, a multi-billion dollar manager of hedge fund portfolios. As an impact investor in residence at Chicago Booth, she teaches, mentors, and supports impact investing programs. She earned an MBA from Chicago Booth and a BS from Babson College.

 

 

Julia Stasch

Julia Stasch

Philanthropy

Julia Stasch is the immediate past president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s largest philanthropies. She is chair of the board of MacArthur affiliate Lever for Change, a distinguished nonresident senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, a senior advisor to the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities philanthropic collaborative, and a board member of P33, a private, sector-led effort to drive inclusive, global tech and innovation leadership in Chicagoland. Previously, Stasch was commissioner of the City of Chicago's Department of Housing and chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley, president and CEO of Shorebank Chicago Companies, president and COO of Stein & Company, deputy administrator of the General Services Administration under President Clinton, a Vista volunteer, and teacher.

 

Chris Wheat

Chris Wheat, ’10

Sustainability

Chris Wheat is director of strategy and city engagement for the American Cities Climate Challenge at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), working with mayors and city halls around the country to adopt environmental policies and programs. Prior to NRDC, Wheat held several positions in the Office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, including innovation on delivery team director, chief sustainability officer, and chief of policy. He started his career in finance and management consulting. Wheat sits on the board of directors of Chicago Debates and the Chicago Development Commission. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Wheat holds a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Kate Wollin

Kate Wolin

Research to Market

Kate Wolin is the founder of Circea, which provides expertise in building effective and personalized digital health behavior change solutions. She is also cofounder of Coeus Health, which translates research-tested behavioral change programs into scalable software solutions. Wolin started her career in academia as a medical school professor investigating the role of lifestyle behaviors in chronic disease outcomes. She was awarded numerous grants from the National Institute of Health and other organizations and has been published extensively. She then transitioned to the private sector, serving as CEO and cofounder of ScaleDown, a clinically proven weight loss program that was acquired by Anthem, Inc.

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Contact the Rustandy Center

The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
5807 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60637

773.834.2716
rustandycenter@chicagobooth.edu

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