Rady School Welcomes New Social Entrepreneur in Residence

Thanks to strong student interest in creating socially important ventures and the timeliness of topics focused on civic engagement and immigration, USD’s Rady School of Management has welcomed its first Social Entrepreneur in Residence. Christina Fialho, Co-Founder and Executive Director Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) will briefly join the Rady School as a professor and speaker. Fialho’s nonprofit work to end the U.S. immigration detention system made her an obvious choice.

Fialho is an attorney and social justice activist. In 2016, she was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship and, in 2012, the Echoing Green Fellowship. Both awards recognized her innovation and entrepreneurship on behalf of those in U.S. immigration detention.

As part of her work, Fialho also serves on the board of directors for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California. She also serves on the California Bar Association’s Civil Justice Strategies Task Force and the Steering Committee of the Detention Watch Network.

“Social innovation starts not with an idea, but with the identification of an unmet need within society,” Fialho said in a press release. “Only when one fully understands a problem can one begin to think about solutions. The best place to begin as a social entrepreneur is in one’s own community. I will be sharing about my social entrepreneurial journey, which began in my community.”

While at the Rady School of Management, Fialho will be leading classes, delivering presentations and holding office hours. Her hope is that she will be able to empower both students and faculty to create change on the campus and beyond. Within her classes, Fialho will be educating students about social entrepreneurship and connecting that concept to the real world with the goal of fostering a campus-wide culture of social innovation.

On February 22, Fialho gave her first talk at the University about her work on immigration law.

“The Rady School’s Center for Social Innovation and Impact is very pleased to have Christina Fialho as our first Social Entrepreneur in Residence,” said JoAnne Starr, assistant dean of Graduate Programs at the Rady School. “Christina brings a wealth of experience in launching and growing a sustainable organization focusing on an important social issue.”

regions: San Diego

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