University Of Virginia Professor Brings Social Entrepreneurship Skills To New Role

The public policy professor has been appointed as chief innovation officer to advance UVA Batten's social entrepreneurship mission.

Public policy professor Christine Mahoney has been tapped to fill a newly created position at The University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy (UVA Batten) as its inaugural Chief Innovation Officer.

UVA Batten is thrilled to designate Mahoney to the role as she brings a wealth of expertise and creativity to social entrepreneurship. According to a press release, the educator will use her creativity and leadership skills to advance Batten’s “social entrepreneurship mission.” Eileen Chou, Batten’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, said Mahoney’s strategic approach “will be invaluable” as the university continues to “foster innovation, strengthen our relationships…and create lasting impacts in the communities we serve.”

The appointment follows UVA’s Fall Entrepreneurship Week, which gathered the entrepreneurial community across the university and the greater Charlottesville area for a week of events, including a ribbon-cutting for UVA’s new entrepreneurship house, The Foundry.

Mahoney takes on the position as an experienced entrepreneur with previous ties to the university as the founder of its Social Entrepreneurship at UVA initiative. This initiative introduced students to new social entrepreneurship courses and offered a minor, concept competition, and scholarship opportunities. Batten’s Dean, Ian H. Solomon, attested to the professor’s impact on the UVA student body and acknowledged her as one of “the strongest proponents of innovation” in UVA’s classrooms and research.

The university stated that the Social Entrepreneurship program has taught over 2,500 students and seen more than 700 students declare the minor. Over 80 student social enterprise teams have been mentored through Social Entrepreneurship at UVA.

Mahoney has designed several immersive fellowships for students. “She is the driving force behind our gifts to Batten to focus undergraduate and graduate students on social entrepreneurship in Appalachia,” according to UVA alum Richard Tadler. Mahoney’s fellowships expose students to the challenges of Appalachia and the importance of impact investing for the region’s recovery. According to a spotlight published on the Vice President for Research at UVA’s YouTube channel, Mahoney uses social entrepreneurship to study social justice advocacy, activism, and direct action.

As the first chief innovation officer, Mahoney also brings her personal skills to the new role with the recent entrepreneurial venture she embarked on with her husband to open Thistlerock Mead, a meadery near Charlottesville looking to become the first of its kind to boast net-zero carbon emissions in the country. Forbes noted that the couple and the meadery’s co-founder aim to use their unique social impact business model to prove small business success through regenerative sustainability principles.

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