Our current director, Dr. Ballesteros, was appointed in the Fall of 2024 (News Center Release), and she is building on the previous work done by her predecessors with a dedicated team of students.
The Team
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Dr. Maria Ballesteros-Sola
Dr. Maria Ballesteros-Sola, DBA, MBA, Fulbright Scholar (1998-2000), Paul R. Lawrence Fellow (2016) serves as Associate Professor of Management & the Entrepreneurship & Small Business Institute’s Director.
Her research focuses on social enterprises, hybrid organizations, and B Corps. She has published in the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, International Journal of Social Business, the International Journal of Management Education, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy, Case Research Journal, and the Journal of Social Business. She serves on several editorial review boards, is the chair of the Social Impact Track for North America Case Research Association (NACRA) and is the SAGE Publishing Social Impact Case Collection editor. Her cases have won several awards in both NACRA and USASBE annual conferences. Dr. Ballesteros-Sola also serves on the boards of the Case Research Foundation, The Case Centre UK, Women Economic Ventures (WEV) and Start-Up Kids, a local social enterprise that she co-founded. She is also a B Academic’s co-founder and provides strategic and tactical guidance to non-profits and social enterprises. Before moving to the United States, she had a career in financial services (VISA, Bankinter) and management consulting (Cap Gemini, Indra, etc.) on both sides of the Atlantic (US, Mexico, UK & Spain), helping banks and other organizations to use technology to achieve their business objectives.
Dr. Ballesteros-Sola is also a strong advocate for the use of high impact practices such as experiential and service-learning, learning communities, international experiences, the case method and humanizing technology in higher education.
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Gabriela Evans
I have been working with ESBI since October of 2023. As a business major, I believe in the values of ESBI and am happy to serve as the ESBI Account Manager in my senior year.
Major: Business, Option in Marketing
Graduation in Spring 2025
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Itzel Tena-Ortiz
As part of my ESBI responsibilities, I contribute to the strategic direction of the Institute; I have planned and executed our HHwE series for three semesters and StartUp Weekend for two consecutive years. I have learned how to network and contribute to bringing in individuals to help us with promotions or workshops. Through these events, I have been able to learn a multitude of different resources, from successfully creating session flows, material content, and promotion, and having enlightening conversations with entrepreneurs. ESBI has helped me develop skills in organizing and strategically planning an event from start to finish.Major: Business, Option in Management, Spanish, a Certificate in Spanish Translation, and Global Studies
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Jocelyn Felix
I joined ESBI in August 2024. I am a fourth year at 91ÊÓƵ and I am grateful to be a part of an outlet where students can learn from and share success stories from established and trustworthy companies.
Major: Business, Option in Marketing
Affiliated Faculty
We have tenure track faculty and a distinguished team of lecturers supporting our efforts.
- Dr. Ray Bowman
- Dr. Minder Chen
- Dr. Dale Deardorff
- Dr. Alan Jaeger
- Prof. Aaron Nastaskin
- Dr. Ekin Pehlivan
- Dr. Michael Seay
- Dr. Cynthia Sherman