Institute for Social Innovation, Babson College

Underwritten by the Lewis Family Foundation, the Institute was founded in July 2010.  Today, it is the GPS for students, faculty, staff, foundations, and corporate partners.

Cheryl Kiser, Executive Director

As the Executive Director of The Institute for Social Innovation and The Babson Social Innovation Lab, Cheryl is responsible for leading a critical aspect of the growth strategy for Babson by promoting broad support for Babson’s work in integrating social innovation and social entrepreneurship into its curriculum and co-curricular activities. Employing Entrepreneurial Thought & Action as Babson’s key methodology for spurring social innovation in all sectors, Cheryl is developing Babson as the “go to place“ for global social entrepreneurship resources, activities, relationships, networks, knowledge and convenings. These initiatives will enable Babson to serve as an educator, amplifier, accelerator and communicator of the positive impacts of social entrepreneurship in all of its forms.

Before coming to Babson, Cheryl was the Managing Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. She is one of the leading voices in the U.S. on the role of business in society. For more than 12 years she played a central role in creating the largest research center of its kind in the U.S., and spearheaded a national initiative to engage leading businesses to take a collaborative approach to working on education issues.

Cheryl, who earned a graduate degree in community organization and social policy and planning from Boston College, has always been at the intersection of public policy, private enterprise and community. She is skilled at building new markets for social change organizations and developing communications and positioning strategies. She is a leader in corporate social responsibility and social innovation, and has won awards for her public affairs campaigns.