Prior to his current position as Director of the Center for Social Impact Learning (CSIL) at MIIS, Jerry was the Founder/CEO of the award winning Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA. His responsibilities there included management and administration of the Center, innovative program design, formation of the Council of University Social Entrepreneurs (student arm of the Center), establishment of the Board of Stakeholders composed of 26 social entrepreneurship professionals, development of the Mentorship Program, creation of the privately funded Ambassador Corps international internship program, launching a student operated social enterprise that provides technical assistance to start-up social entrepreneurship organization locally and globally, instituting a Business Basics Boot Camp for Non-business Students, coordination of sustainability workshops for local non-profit organizations, research and development of the first community-based microfinance fund in the Central Valley of California. At Pacific, over eight years, he created a whole new generation of hands-on solution-minded pragmatists that pioneered practical, inventive, and sustainable approaches that address the world’s most pressing social issues.
Previously, Jerry was the CEO for 17 years of the Katalysis Bootstrap Fund, a microfinance organization that provides training, technical assistance, and credit to non-governmental microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador). The Katalysis Network of 25 MFIs provides microloans to over 290,000 clients (70% women; 98 % repayment).
Prior to Katalysis, Jerry was the Caribbean regional field director for International Voluntary Services, based on the island of Antigua for six years, where he directed a socio-economic development program on ten newly independent island-nations in the Eastern Caribbean. His work in grassroots economic development started in Appalachia (West Virginia coal mining region) where he worked for 10 years to develop and direct the first rural Economic Development Corporation in the U.S. to finance community-based business enterprises in a chronically depressed region of the U.S. Jerry was one of pioneering Peace Corps volunteers in the early 60’s where he worked for two years in the Andes Mountains of Peru with Aymara Indians on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
He has spoken at numerous conferences (Ashoka Changemaker Campus Exchange, ThinkImpact Huddle, Opportunity Collaboration, DELL Challenge, Middlebury Symposium, Northwestern Buffett Center) and individual universities on the Pacific Experience “Creating a University Center of Social Entrepreneurship from Scratch: Land Mines and Lessons Learned.” Most recently, he has given workshops on the “Top Ten Kickass Low Cost Experiential Learning Opportunities” for University Social Entrepreneurship Programs.
Jerry presently serves on the board of directors of the Cordes Foundation, Fair Trade University USA, Opportunity Collaboration, Stockton Impact Corps (Community Microfinance Fund), The World We Want Foundation, and the Semester At Sea Corporate Advisory Board.
