Expertise

Business & development; social entrepreneurship

At the Keough School

Melissa Paulsen leads the Entrepreneurship and Education Division at the Keough School’s Pulte Institute for Global Development, working with faculty to develop interdisciplinary approaches to development programs. In addition, she coordinates student fellowships, student research opportunities, and collaborative institutes for international students, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. Paulsen also is a term assistant teaching professor in the Keough School.

Courses

• Human Centered Design for Social Innovation (master of global affairs elective, international peace studies concentration; course for social entrepreneurship and innovation minor administered by McKenna Center for Human Development & Global Business and Pulte Institute for Global Development)
• Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (elective for master of global affairs, international peace studies concentration; course for social entrepreneurship and innovation minor)

Biography

Paulsen is a former assistant director of the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She served as director of the Center’s social entrepreneurship program and was concurrent assistant professional faculty in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She has taught courses including Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Consulting, Microventure Consulting, and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries.

Paulsen also leads workshops on social and traditional entrepreneurship, and has managed experiential and service-learning programs in South Africa, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda and Guatemala. She holds a master of nonprofit administration degree from Notre Dame and a BA in English and philosophy from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts.