Bio
Michele Kahane has more than 25 years of experience in the global business, nonprofit, and philanthropy sectors. Currently, she is the Associate Dean of Educational Innovation and Social Engagement and Professor of Professional Practice in Management at The New School’s Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment. Her teaching and professional practice are focused on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and social investment. As Associate Dean, she is responsible for developing, resourcing and promoting new innovations in applied, field-based, and project-based learning in support of the graduate and undergraduate programs within the Schools of Public Engagement and across the university. She is also faculty director of The New School’s Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative and Collaboratory.
Prior to her faculty appointment at The New School, she worked in executive positions at the Clinton Global Initiative, the Ford Foundation and, the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College where she worked with companies, social entrepreneurs, and the public sector to forge innovative market-based approaches to global development. Earlier she was a Vice President at Chemical Bank focused on corporate finance in emerging markets and started her career with Catholic Relief Services. She is co-author of the award-winning book Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets (2006). Michele has served on a wide array of boards and advisory committees focused on education, philanthropy, impact investing, entrepreneurship and women’s issues. She has been a founding board member of the Criterion Institute and one of the initial change leaders in the Ashoka U Changemaker Campus Consortium. Michele has an MBA and Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.