Careers in Social Innovation

Social innovators are diverse and dynamic. They create change from within established organizations as intrapreneurs, through their own organizations as entrepreneurs and everywhere in between. Read on to see how and where social innovators are shaping a better world.

Where Social Innovators Work

Organizations Focusing on Social Change

  • Foundations
  • Government Agencies
  • Grassroots Organizations
  • Impact Investing Firms

Organizations Creating Economic, Social and Environmental Value

  • Social Enterprises
  • B-Corps
  • Hybrid Businesses

Corporate Departments Giving Back to Society

  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Sustainable Development
  • Community Engagement
  • Environmental Sustainability 

Local, State and National Governments

  • Public-Private Partnerships
  • Departments and Programs Serving the Public
  • Policy Offices
Bianca Alvarado

Bianca Alvarado '18 (MASI)

Co-Founder, La Casa Azul Productions

Bianca came to the Master of Arts in Social Innovation program with a desire to grow her social venture, Baja Urban, which sells handmade products from Latin America and donates 10 percent of product sales to the Hispanic Youth Leadership Program. In addition to the standard MASI curriculum, she participated in the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge and developed important new skills and connections along the way. Following graduation, she released her first in-house product, which was so successful that it completely sold out. Since then, she integrated Baja Urban with, and became co-founder of, La Casa Azul Productions — a program with funding from the U.S. State Department that provides career training in digital media content creation to Hispanic youth from disadvantaged communities.

Nico Darras '18 (MASI)

Founder and CEO, AND ME Consulting

While attending the University of Connecticut on a baseball scholarship, Nico majored in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. After an injury abruptly ended his baseball career, he enrolled in the Kroc School’s Master of Arts in Social Innovation program to gain new skills while furthering his understanding of gender, masculinity and sexual violence. On his journey through the program, he identified the need for a sexual violence prevention training program specifically tailored to athletes. As a result, Nico founded AND ME Consulting which teaches male athletes the importance of positive masculinity and encourages them to join in the fight to combat sexual violence. More recently, to strengthen his business and grow his expertise, Nico started his EdD in Organizational Leadership at Pepperdine University.

Nico Darras
Claire Bergstresser

Claire Bergstresser '19 (MASI)

Grants & Compliance Coordinator, International Rescue Committee

Claire graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2015 with both a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Law as well as a BS in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Since then, she has served in several capacities with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in San Diego, including working with more than 500 volunteers and interns as they support refugees in their resettlement. Claire is trained in program capacity building, implementation, and crisis management. In 2019, she completed her Master of Arts in Social Innovation at the Kroc School, which equipped her with the skills, knowledge and experience to enhance her impact with IRC and the San Diego community in her role as a Grants & Compliance Coordinator. In this position, she is supervising the implementation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding. Additionally, she was invited to a Special Advisory Committee on disability inclusion at IRC worldwide because of the confidence and skills the MASI program brought her.