In today's episode, we interview Dr. Rasheda Weaver, who turned her dissertation into a business. Rasheda is one of the world’s leading experts on social and commercial entrepreneurship. She conducted the first large-scale empirical study on the social, economic, and legal activities of social enterprises in the United States and is the Founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory, Inc. As a Professor, she has taught entrepreneurship to over 1,000 students globally. 

She served as the first Assistant Professor for the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that was established with a $15 million donation at Iona College in 2017, helping to build its teaching, research, and service foundation. We learn in the interview how she transitioned from her faculty position to her business, as well as how the skills she learned during her PhD helped her start a business. We also hear from her about the skills she acquired as an entrepreneur which she had not developed in academia. 

Dr. Weaver’s forthcoming textbook is entitled “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction.” It is being considered a seminal work in the field of social entrepreneurship and will be published in January 2023. We talk about the book itself, her research and writing process, as well as finding a publishing deal.

Rasheda is also an academic parent, and we talk about when her children were born during her research career and how she balance research and motherhood. We round off with her best advice for PhD candidates, setting boundaries to work, the impact of COVID-19, and what a day in the life looks like for her.

References

• Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory
• Rasheda's website
• 5-day online bootcamp
•  Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction.
• Raul Pacheco-Vega
• Get a life, PhD
• The most powerful weapon on earth is a human soul on fire
• Business instagram
• Personal instagram
• Winter always comes: Social enterprises in times of crisis. 
• Introduction: Social entrepreneurship education special issue. 
• Putting the commercial in social enterprise education: Employing the for-profit to nonprofit business model in the classroom. 
• Facilitating business online: The utilization, benefits, and challenges of online social enterprise directories. 
• The impact of COVID-19 on the social enterprise sector.