Melissa Bradley

Activist, Business leader, Business mentor, Change Agent, Consultant, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Finance professional, Gay, Idea generator, Investor, Parent, Philanthropist, Policy maker, Public servant, Social entrepreneur

Melissa L. Bradley has more than 20 years of entrepreneurship, investment and leadership experience. She is the Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative and Executive in Residence at the Kogod School of Business at American University. In 2015 she was awarded the Anne S. Ferren Award for Curriculum Design. Since 2012 Melissa has been a Professor of Practice at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where she serves as an expert lecturer on Impact Investing, Social Entrepreneurship, Peer-to-Peer Economies and Innovation. In 2015 she was awarded the Entrepreneurial Faculty Excellence Award and the Joseph F. LeMoine Award for Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching Excellence. She is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sidecar Social Finance, a social impact agency that provides impact investing advisory and capital services to individuals, institutions, and social enterprises. Clients include Aspen Institute, William Penn Foundation, Council of Michigan Foundations, and The Philanthropy Network. Bradley served as a Presidential Appointee under President Obama from 2012-2015. In this role she was Chief Strategy Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service, served at the Department of Education and was responsible for securing over $20 million in public-private partnerships to support national service and My Brother’s Keeper. From 2014-2015 she served as Acting Director of the Social Innovation Fund, a White House Initiative committed to scaling ‘what works’ in our communities. Melissa has been a serial entrepreneur as Founder and Managing Director of new Capitalist, an organization that facilitated over $20 million in venture capital transactions for seed stage companies. She is also founder of The Entrepreneurial Development Institute, an international, non-governmental entrepreneurship organization, serving youth, ages 7 to 21, and their families, with 16 satellite offices throughout the United States and three international locations. Melissa currently serves as a board member to Aeris and ideas42. She serves as an Advisor to the Credit Suisse New Markets Advisory board, Wallet AI, the Center for the Advancement of Social Enterprise (CASE) at Duke University, LGBTQ Center at Georgetown University and Founding Advisor to the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. She is also Founder and Former Chair of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance and served as a board member on the Georgetown University Board of Governors for more than 10 years, as well as Founding Member, The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership. Melissa holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Finance from the School of Business at Georgetown University, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration in Marketing from American University Kogod School of Business.

Changing the world. As a woman of color, I grew up poor but attended private school. The stark yet unexplainable contrast between me and my peers pushed me to address the barriers of race and class.

In a world where social and business problems are interconnected, it is important to no longer think about solutions to social ills only through the lens of philanthropy. It is time to develop a continuum of products, services and investment vehicles - that may generate 0 to 20% return - with the intent of solving some of today's most pressing social problems - homelessness, climate change, poverty. With the Citizens United case decided, It is time for "helping others in need" to be in the DNA of individuals and institutions.