Social Enterprise Collective - Free Event

Igniting Impact: Connecting, Collaborating, and Celebrating Social Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC!

Pepperdine MA in Social Entrepreneurship and the Pepperdine School of Public Policy invites you to join the Social Enterprise Collective in Washington, DC, for an inspiring evening of connection, collaboration, and impact stories. 

Event Highlights:

• Networking Mixer: Engage with fellow social impact professionals and enthusiasts. Share your experiences and learn from others who are driving positive change.
• Panel Discussion: Dive into insightful discussions on impact funding and startup strategies. Gain valuable perspectives from seasoned professionals in the field.
• Fireside Chat With Special Guests Jonathan Soros and Laura Lucas Magnuson: Be inspired by distinguished guest speakers Jonathan Soros and Laura Lucas Magnuson who have made a significant impact in the world of social entrepreneurship.
• Business Plan Student Fast Pitch Competition: Witness the creativity and innovation of social entrepreneurship students as they present their ventures in a rapid-fire pitch competition. The winners will be announced during our networking mixer.

Agenda:

• 4 PM - 7 PM (EDT): Panels and Fast Pitch Competition
• 7 PM - 9 PM (EDT): Cross-sector Impact Professional Mixer and Awards

Connect with a vibrant community of like-minded individuals. Gain practical insights into impact funding and startup success. Be a part of a celebration recognizing the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

Space is limited. Participants are encouraged to reserve their seats as soon as possible.

Social Enterprise Collective 2023

See what you can look forward to by watching a compilation from last year's event.

Featured Speakers

Jonathan Soros

Jonathan Soros is animated by a foundational belief in every person’s equal right to dignity and opportunity. A devoted spouse and father, he is married with three children and lives in New York City.

Professionally, Jonathan is co­founder of Athletes Unlimited, a pioneering new approach to professional sports leagues. He is also founder and Chief Executive Officer of JS Capital Management LLC, a private family office, co­founder and partner at One Madison Group, a multi­family investment platform that evolved from his work building JS Capital Management, and a Director of the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation.

Together with his wife Jennifer, Jonathan is also co­founder of Give Lively LLC, a social enterprise to facilitate philanthropic giving, which she directs. He is a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank based in New York City and serves on the boards of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice, and GivingTuesday, a global movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity.

Prior to founding JS Capital, Jonathan spent nine years with Soros Fund Management LLC, serving as its President and Deputy Chairman from 2005 to 2011. Jonathan is a co­founder of Friends of Democracy PAC, the Fair Trial Initiative, and Victory 2021. He has also previously served as co­chair of the board of New America and held several board positions affiliated with the Open Society Foundations.

Jonathan clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his BA from Wesleyan University.

Laura Lucas Magnuson

Laura Lucas Magnuson is the Executive Vice President for Global Programs at the Obama Foundation. She previously was Vice President for Communications and Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and has led communications and media relations for the global law firm Morgan Lewis, the Obama Foundation, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Laura was a Foreign Service Officer for more than a decade, serving in Nepal and the Czech Republic and in policy and communications roles related to NATO, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. She also served as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. From 2013 to 2014, Laura was a White House spokesperson and Director of Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, responsible for Europe and Russia, NATO, South and Central Asia, cybersecurity, and international economic policy.

Laura holds an Executive MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She serves as a member of the Research Advisory Council for the Partnership for Public Service.

Panelists

Alison Oliveira Wheeler

Alison is the Senior Director of the UN Foundation’s global health campaign, United to Beat Malaria, the world’s largest grassroots campaign to defeat malaria. She co-leads the campaign, with specific oversite of resource mobilization, partnerships, communications, marketing, and the grant portfolio. 

Alison is committed to building better futures for children, women, and families around the globe. Prior to joining the campaign, she led marketing, communications, and development teams at award-winning global non-profit organizations, SOS Children’s Villages, and Women for Women International.

Prior to her work with global organizations, Alison held brand, marketing, and new product development roles with media and technology companies, domestically and internationally.

She received her Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and earned her MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Additionally, she studied at the University of Padova in Italy and Charles University in the Czech Republic. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and two children.

Cordell Carter, Esq. 

Cordell brings more than 20 years to his pursuit of a society and organizational cultures where everyone belongs and has equitable opportunities to thrive. He is currently the executive director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, a global education forum and the founding director of the Aspen Institute’s Project on Belonging. Finally, Cordell founded the Festival of the Diaspora, a Medellin, Colombia-based convener of diasporic communities across the Americas, and Expectant Advisory, LLC, a human capital advisory firm. Before his current roles, Cordell held leadership roles with the TechTown Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle Public Schools, Business Roundtable, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the IBM Corporation.

For the Aspen Institute, he curates more than three dozen off the-record leadership seminars annually in capital cities around the world reaching more than 1,000 leaders each year. He is also leading the Aspen Institute’s efforts to shift the national conversation on racial equity and inclusion from compliance to belonging via an annual LATAM-based summit called the “Festival of the Diaspora.” As the creator and lead facilitator of “Becoming an Inclusive Republic" and producer of the documentary “The Road Trip to Belonging”, he is a sought-after facilitator and speaker on belonging and inclusion, post-secondary success, and democratic ideals. Over the last few years, he has delivered dozens of keynote speeches, facilitated roundtables and moderated panels all over the globe. Through Expectant Advisory, Cordell advises leaders and boards of directors at various points on their enterprise-wide inclusion and belonging learning journeys.

Cordell is a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from belonging and its connection to our civic faith. A few of his most popular topics include: “Becoming an Inclusive Republic”, “The Five Forces Impacting Liberal Democracy” and the “Four Foundings.” Over the last decade, he has spoken in 15 different countries and 20 US states. His leadership has been recognized all over the USA. In June 2021, President Joseph R. Biden appointed him as Commissioner, to the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. His other honors include: a designation as a 2023 Minority Executives Making Moves by the Minority Business Review,  2021 Distinguished Alumni Leadership Awardee by Cultural Vistas, an Eisenhower Fellowship to China; designation as a “40 under 40” by business and civic organizations in Washington State and Tennessee; University of Notre Dame Law School alumni of the year awardee; selections as a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow for Young American Leaders and a Broad Foundation Resident in Urban Education and being feted by the Obama Administration as a 2016 Champion of Change for Computer Science Education. 

Finally, he advises a leading upskiller, SkillStorm, on creating technology training academies in underserved communities across America via the Upskill Together Initiative. Cordell also serves as a Board Director for Concordia, Orbit Capital, Oasis Fresh Markets, Redemption Holdings, and the International Advisory Committee of Danubius University (Galatz, Romania). Finally, he is a limited partner with the Fvlcrum Fund and Mendoza Ventures.

Mr. Carter earned a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School, a M.Sc. in Public Policy and Management Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington.

Janet Tran

Janet Tran serves as the the Director of the Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. She joined the Foundation in 2010 to help design the Foundation's non-partisan civic learning portfolio, answering President Reagan’s call for an “informed patriotism.” With the goal of cultivating the next generation of citizen leaders, the Reagan Foundation Education team delivers award-winning simulations, teacher curriculum, student programming, and grants over one million dollars in scholarships annually.  

In 2015, she moved east to establish the Reagan Institute offices in Washington, DC with the launch of Leadership and the American Presidency (LTAP), an experiential accredited leadership program for university students through the lens of the American Presidency. Students spend a semester in Washington, DC interning, learning, and growing as citizen leaders. Most recently, Janet built the Reagan Institute’s Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity (CCEO) which operates at the nexus of civics and education policy. This work includes launching the inaugural Reagan Institute Summit on Education (RISE) at the 35th anniversary of the seminal report, A Nation at Risk. The RISE initiative now brings cross-sector, bipartisan leaders together to examine and elevate the national conversation around education in America.  

Janet serves on the Board of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), as a Senior Advisor to the Campus Election Engagement Project, the iCivics CivXNow Advisory Coucil, and the Advisory Board of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

Janet’s civic mission began as a teacher-leader at John C. Fremont High School and Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in South Los Angeles. Janet earned her BA from The University of California, Los Angeles, and her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction at California State University, Northridge. She earned her Doctorate in Education Learning Technologies at Pepperdine University.

Event Facilitator

Erika Hanafin Feldhus

Erika is a mom to one and joined HeyMama, a membership community for working moms, in 2021 as the Chief Executive Officer. Growing up in a family of successful CEOs, Erika was enriched with the intricate details of running a successful business through observation, higher education, and extensive experience. She has spent the past 15 years growing small businesses and in a variety of industries through her efforts in business development, research and data, and operations and revenue management. Throughout it all, she has discovered that a company’s culture defines its success. Both internally and externally, she is determined to build a healthy culture by compassionately raising women up through leadership, collaboration, philanthropy, and fundraising on a global level. Erika is a Startup Advisor, Chairman of an arts & education non-profit board, and is a Certified Holistic Health Coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. As a sophisticated, intelligent, and supportive leader in business, Erika has been recognized for Excellence in Business by the National Association of Professional Women VIP Awards and holds President’s Club and Knights of the Roundtable awards.

Panel Facilitator

Damara Catlett

Damara is a senior government and public affairs professional with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of civil rights, technology, arts and culture, and advocacy. Damara designs strategic communications, and public policy strategies and campaigns for tech and media companies and civil rights groups, with a focus on ethical AI, tech policy, voting rights, and social impact advocacy.

Damara helped manage efforts for the Second Chance on Shoot First campaign, which brought national awareness to Stand Your Ground laws following the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Damara led a multi-state civic engagement campaign focused on voter registration and engagement efforts for the National Urban League; the campaign brought together key stakeholders with state organizers and, in the end, reached over 350,000 African American voters. Over the past decade, Damara’s work has focused on tech policy and civil rights, and she works with the civil rights and government affairs teams at Google, Warner Bros. Discovery, and a host of other corporations and public interest tech groups. 

Damara is a board member of the Voter Participation Center, a member of the National Institue for Lobbying Ethics's AI Task Force, was a New Leaders Council Institute Fellow, and served on the inaugural Kennedy Center Culture Caucus, where she worked with afrofuturists forecasting emerging tech policy issues through the arts. Damara holds a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies and History from Franklin & Marshall College and is a native of Philadelphia.