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J. Gregory Dees Honored for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship

(12/07)

J. Gregory Dees, Professor of the Practice in Social Entrepreneurship and founding faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Entrepreneurship by the Aspen Institute and Ashoka as part of their Faculty Pioneer Awards. Susan Davis, director of Ashoka’s Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship and Chair of the Board of the Grameen Foundation presented Greg with the award and remarked that, “Through his pioneering work at Stanford, Harvard and Duke, as well as prodigious research, writing and tireless sharing, Greg Dees has earned the title: father of social entrepreneurship education.”

Professor Dees received the award at the sixth annual awards ceremony held by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. Described as the Oscars of the business school world by the Financial Times, these awards recognize the thought leaders among MBA faculty who have demonstrated leadership and risk-taking in integrating social and environmental issues into academic research, educational programs, and business practice.  "The remarkable faculty that have been chosen for these awards are truly change agents when it comes to bringing discussions of issues of social and environmental responsibility into the MBA classroom," says Rich Leimsider, director of the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. And, he adds, "through their research in areas ranging from employee empowerment and stakeholder management to social entrepreneurship these faculty winners are helping foster those discussions in corporations and the community at large."

This year, Aspen partnered with Ashoka, global organization with a twenty-six-year history and network of more than 1,800 social entrepreneurs serving seventy countries, to present awards in social entrepreneurship education for the first time. Greg Dees was honored with the lifetime achievement award for his unrivaled contributions to building the field of social entrepreneurship.  

Dees is widely recognized for his ground-breaking scholarship in the field of social entrepreneurship.  In his research and writing, Professor Dees bridges the gap between business and the social sector, and between theory and practice, translating knowledge that is particularly useful for front-line social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and philanthropists.  His essay, “The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship” is regularly referenced in scholarly journals and practitioner-oriented publications and on the internet.  Two books that he co-edited—Enterprising Nonprofits (Wiley, 2001) and Strategic Tools for Social Entrepreneurs (Wiley, 2002)—remain among the most popular practitioner-oriented texts on social entrepreneurship.  In total, Dees has produced over sixty publications, presented at countless universities and conferences, and hosted several convenings of business school colleagues, thought leaders, or practitioners.  His work has contributed significantly to building credibility for this field in academia.

In addition to his research and writing, Professor Dees has been a leading figure in the institutionalization of the study of social entrepreneurship.  Dees designed, developed, and taught the first known graduate and undergraduate courses on social entrepreneurship in the United States. While on the faculty of Harvard Business School, Dees helped launch the Initiative on Social Enterprise and received the 1995 Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching.  At Stanford University, he designed, developed, and taught new MBA and undergraduate courses on social entrepreneurship, a new undergraduate course on business skills for the social sector, an executive program on High Impact Philanthropy, and a seminar at the Law School on nonprofit law, economics, and strategy.  Dees served as a founding faculty co-director of Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation, raising initial funds and playing a key role in designing the center.  

Moving to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in 2001, Dees founded and continues to serve as faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), a research and education center dedicated to promoting the entrepreneurial pursuit of social impact through the thoughtful adaptation of business expertise.

Professor Dees’ institutional impact is perhaps most evident in the results of his work at Duke University.  In its first five years, CASE has provided thought leadership for the growing field of social entrepreneurship, built a robust MBA program for students and alumni interested in applying their business skills for social impact, and established a strong institutional presence and base of support at Duke University.  Under Greg’s leadership and with his colleagues Beth Anderson, former CASE Managing Director, and Matt Nash, CASE Associate Director, CASE has launched the Fuqua on Board nonprofit board fellows program; the CASE Summer Internship Program; the Fuqua Loan Assistance Program; and the CASE Social Sector Scholarship Program, which recognizes incoming students with significant social sector experience and who intend to seek employment in the social sector upon graduation.  The CASE MBA program has served numerous students in the classroom, provided over $330,000 in financial aid to MBAs working in the social sector, and engaged Duke students in independent study projects and volunteer service with over fifty social-purpose organizations in Durham and beyond.  Since the creation of CASE, Duke’s chapter of Net Impact has grown to over 250 students and was recognized as Fuqua’s “Club of the Year” for the last two academic years.

More information about CASE at www.caseatduke.org.

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