Paul M. Rogers -  Executive Director

Paul M. Rogers (Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2008) is currently serving as the Interim Executive Director of the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Continuing as a Faculty liason, he works with other Mason faculty to expand integration of social entrepreneurship concepts and pedagogy within their teaching, research and writing. Rogers has been a leader of Mason’s ChangeMaker Campus Team, a partnership between Ashoka and Mason aimed at fostering the capacities of social entrepreneurship across the University, the work of which helped lay the foundation for the launch of the Center.  Rogers is an Assistant Professor of English at George Mason University and the Director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project.  In addition to working with K-12 teachers throughout Northern Virginia, he teaches undergraduate courses in academic writing, business writing, writing for the humanities, and advanced nonfiction writing, as well as graduate courses in the teaching of writing, composition theory, and research methods in rhetoric and writing.

His recent books  include: “International Advances in Writing Research” co-edited with Charles Bazerman (Parlor Press, 2012); “Writing Across the Curriculum: A Critical Sourcebook” co-edited with Terry Zawacki (Bedford St.Martin’s, 2011); and, “Traditions of Writing Research” co-edited with Charles Bazerman (Routledge, 2010). Professor Rogers was a 2008 recipient of AAC&U’s K. Patricia Cross Award for leadership in higher education, and a co-recipient of NCTE’s 2009 Janet Emig Award for research in English education. Paul works on the Stanford Study of Writing Research team, and serves as the corresponding secretary for the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research.

Elizabeth Schmidt – Scholar in Residence

Elizabeth Schmidt, the inaugural Scholar in Residence for the Mason Center for Entrepreneurship is teaching Govt. 353, Social Entrepreneurship, writing about Social Enterprises, and providing the Center with strategic support during the spring semester 2013. She comes to us from Vermont Law School, where she currently teaches Nonprofit Law and Social Enterprise Law and directs the Board Fellows program, which places students as non-voting members of nonprofit boards of directors. She has also taught Property, Family Law, Juvenile Law, Employment Discrimination, Finance III, Legal Writing, and Legal Skills at Vermont Law, the College of William and Mary Law School, and Marlboro College’s Managing for Sustainability MBA Program.

In addition to being a law professor, Professor Schmidt has been a corporate litigator, legal counsel for GuideStar, a manager of educational outreach at Colonial Williamsburg, and a management consultant for nonprofit organizations. At both Colonial Williamsburg and GuideStar, she developed mission-related and revenue-producing programs. As a management consultant, she wrote strategic plans, helped organizations improve governance, guided organizations through transitions, and led seminars on legal and managerial issues facing nonprofits. She also authored several community assessments and helped communities determine how best to meet their goals.

Professor Schmidt has authored articles related to nonprofit governance, accountability, policies, and ethics, as well as a casebook on nonprofit law, Nonprofit Law: The Life Cycle of a Charitable Organization. She has also written about the emerging area of social enterprise.

Professor Schmidt received an A.B., magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and a J.D. from Stanford University, where she was a Note Editor for the Stanford Law Review.

David Miller – Director of Entrepreneurship 

David J. Miller is the Director of Entrepreneurship at the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE). Miller is also a supporting faculty member at George Mason University’s School of Management teaching New Venture Creation and is a PhD candidate at Mason’s School of Public Policy working with Dr. Zoltan J. Acs.

In his work with MCSE, Miller supports entrepreneurship education and programming. From developing and leading Startup Mason, a peer-to-peer founders group for Mason community members, to working with Summer Innovation Program (SIP) participants from around the world on lean startup methodologies, David brings practical tools and offerings to the MCSE and its
community.

Miller has been part of multiple new ventures over the past 15 years, most recently serving as the founder and CEO of FamilyFantasySports.com, an online platform for family-friendly fantasy football. Before that, David helped found and served as the COO of the Creative Class Group (CCG), leading business development, new product and service creation, and strategy. At CCG David oversaw the creation, development, and implementation of the Creative Cities Leadership Project educating and leading more than 200 social innovators in the creation of 30 social ventures in Tallahassee, El Paso, Tacoma, Charlotte, Duluth, and Noosa, Australia. Before CCG, David operated a multi-family property management and leasing firm and worked as a real estate advisor to large commercial tenants in the San Francisco Bay Area. During 1999-2001 David served as the Director of Operations and Strategy for MachineWeb.com and manager of e-commerce and digital music for Rollingstone.com. Miller also spent two years as lead researcher and writer for the President/CEO of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a leading foreign policy think-tank in Washington D.C.

David’s research focuses on opportunity identification and firm formation processes employed by student entrepreneurs in the United States. His theory posits that the campus is the frontier for entrepreneurship in the United States. His fields of research include entrepreneurship, higher education, and economic history. Miller is currently creating a directory, taxonomy, and database of high growth student entrepreneurs, their ventures, and their universities and writing case
studies on universities as the entrepreneurial frontier.

He frequently blogs and comments on entrepreneurship, higher education, and related topics at http://CampusEntrepreneurship.wordpress.com and @campus_entre.

Katie Rendon - Director of Programs

Katie currently serves as the Director of Programs at the George Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

Katie’s main focus as the Director of Programs is running the Center’s Social Innovation Program (SIP). The Social Innovation Program is a summer institute designed to train university students to become the next generation of social entrepreneurs. SIP brings leading undergraduate and graduate students from a global applicant pool to George Mason University for five weeks of intensive academic and experiential training. Graduates emerge armed to successfully apply entrepreneurial approaches to social causes in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors.

Katie Rendon graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Global Affairs with a concentration in International Development and a minor in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. While at George Mason, she studied abroad in the Philippines where she was given the opportunity to work closely with grassroots organizations that focus on poverty and human rights issues specific to the Philippines. It also allowed her to attend the 2010 Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute for Trauma Healing and Reconciliation. She most recently worked for Conservation Jobs Corp in Baltimore, Maryland. Conservation Job Corps places youth from Baltimore City in the Maryland Park Service, giving them the opportunity to learn job skills and engage in nature, team building, and leadership training.

Rachel Bruns is a senior global affairs major, concentrating in global economy and management with a minor in women and gender studies at George Mason University. Her passion for social entrepreneurship was ignited as a seventeen-year-old on a mission trip to rural Ghana which provided medical supplies and mosquito nets to rural villages as well as, high school scholarships to female students and microloans to local women. She works with student and community engagement with the Center’s programming and events. 

For a year and a half, she served as Executive Director of Social Venture Consulting, a student non-profit consulting firm serving the Greater Washington DC area. During the 2011-12 academic year,  Rachel was selected to serve as the Undergraduate Student Representative on the George Mason University Board of Visitors as well as serving on the executive board for Mason Ambassadors, part of the GMU Admissions Office. Formerly, Rachel has interned for the Medill Project on Targeted Warfare and International Law, an economic research boutique in Maryland and for a Representative from the southwest on Capitol Hill. Rachel also worked for the Department of Defense at an Army Research, Development and Engineering Center for five years. She will be working for Deloitte Consulting, LLP after graduation.

Scott Bauer - Strategy Lead

Jeffrey “Scott” Bauer is the Strategy Lead at the Mason Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE). 

In his work with MCSE,  Bauer designs and supports the Center’s strategic growth platform, increasing the Center’s ability to serve GMU and the public at large. He works to build and strengthen the Center’s relationships with GMU students, the local community, and partnering businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations across the country. Bauer also contributes to GMU’s Summer Innovation Program.

Bauer graduated from the University of Virginia in 2008 with a B.A. in Economics. Since graduating, he has been with Accenture, serving as a management consultant in the firm’s Program and Project Management practice. He specializes in strategic project management, change management, and business metrics development, having served federal and commercial clients in the DC area, New York, Michigan, Georgia, Missouri, and abroad.

Scott Bauer is currently a graduate student in GMU’s Masters of Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS) program focusing on Social Entrepreneurship. He also created Care Link, an organization partnering with GMU to provide proactive care for independent senior citizens. More information is available at @J.Scott.Bauer

Robyn Stegman - SIP Alumni President

Robyn Stegman is a Project Specialist at Campaign Consultation, an Inc. 5000 company located in Baltimore, MD. In her current work, Ms. Stegman develops communication campaigns, high quality trainings, and essential resources for nonprofits and government agencies including

AmeriCorps*VISTA, Senior Corps, and the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

Before joining Campaign Consultation, Robyn Stegman was the Associate Director of Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin College. During that time, she oversaw efforts to deepen students’ understanding of local, national, and international issues by fostering service-learning initiatives and strengthening the relationship between the college and the local community. She also served for two years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA with Learn and Serve – Michigan and North Carolina Campus Compact.

Ms. Stegman has always been active in her community and has had the chance to try her hand at many different aspects of social change from preserving historic documents at the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library to founding Geeks for Good, an organization that matches nonprofits with tech savvy volunteers. Over the years she has worked with 21 nonprofit organizations to create new websites, marketing materials, campaigns, and programs that help build relationships, empower changemakers, and create strong, vibrant, communities.

Ms. Stegman holds a B.A. in International Relations from Mary Baldwin College. When she is not serving her community, Ms. Stegman can be found traveling, preparing locally grown meals, or training for her next triathlon.

Greg Werkheiser – Founding Director