CHRISTINE MAHONEY
Christine Mahoney is Chief Innovation Officer and Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She directs the Tadler Program in Impact Investing in Appalachia, the UVA Environmental Institute-funded Climate Collaborative on Appalachian Renewable Energy & Resilience and the EPA-funded Community Change project for economic development in Appalachia.
She launched and led Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia from 2011-2021. She has secured $37.7 million in funding for programs to research, teach and advance innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges.
She studies advocacy, social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Her first book Brussels vs. the Beltway (Georgetown University Press) explored how advocates shape public policy in two of the most powerful political systems on the planet: the US and the EU. She conducted fieldwork in 7 conflict zones in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America for her second book Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced (Cambridge University Press). The book argues we need to advance social entrepreneurship for the 100 million people displaced by violent conflict worldwide.
Her work inspired the launch of the Refugee Investment Network, where she serves as fellow and advisor. The Refugee Investment Network is the first impact investing and blended finance collaborative dedicated to creating durable solutions to global forced migration.
She was previously an Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and the Director of the Center for European Studies and the Maxwell EU Center. She has been a Fulbright Fellow, Visiting Scholar at Oxford, a National Science Foundation grant recipient, and recipient of the Emerging Scholar award from the American Political Science Association.