Dr. Kimberly Reeve teaches Social Entrepreneurship and Management and Leadership of Non-Profits at ISM master's and doctoral candidates at our New York partner location, St. John's University. She has played an active role in ISM's diversity and inclusion initiative and is the current chair of ISM's Diversity and Inclusion Committee. In addition to her work at ISM, Professor Reeve is an associate professor of business and the director of the NYC City Semester- Business program at The King's College in New York City. She is a graduate of ISM's PhD program.
What are you most passionate about in your field?
As a practitioner and now as a researcher, I have always been intrigued by the intersection of profit and mission. How does profit help you sustain a mission, and how does your mission help you change the world? This is a difficult balance, and throughout my career, I’ve enjoyed trying to find and develop the best models of a social enterprise. Also, while social entrepreneurship has been around for centuries, it has really expanded in the past 20 years and has become a very dynamic topic to explore.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I enjoy the challenge of synthesizing data and presenting it in a way that helps students discover the key concepts on their own, and I am always inspired when a student can take a concept we discussed in class and implement it in a way that generates success. Last year, several students in the Nonprofit Management class put together business plans for cross-sector solutions to key cultural and social issues. It was encouraging to see such well-developed plans that are currently being implemented in organizations with which these students are affiliated.
What do you enjoy most about teaching at ISM?
First, I value the diversity of ISM. There is so much for us to learn from each other simply based on our experiences growing up, living, and working in different countries and regions. Second, students at ISM are motivated to learn, and they are current practitioners. This means that they are able to take concepts and theories discussed in class and realistically and directly apply them.
Any advice to those who want to take your course?
The field of social entrepreneurship is expanding in large part because more people want to sustainably make the world a better place. Bring your assumptions, criticisms, and great ideas for changing the world. We’ll explore the concept of social entrepreneurship from a variety of angles, and using issues and organizations that are of interest to you will make the class more interactive and interesting for us all!
What are you currently reading?
I commute by train, so I tend to have multiple books in rotation at the same time. On a weekly basis, I browse through the Economist and the New Yorker. For books, I’m currently finishing up An American Marriage for my book group, and I’m also reading Les Parisiennes and, of course, re-reading a few books on social enterprise - The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and Originals.
