Melissa Paulsen

Program Director, Entrepreneurship and Education Programs and Keough School Term Assistant Teaching Professor

Areas of Expertise: Business & Development; Social Entrepreneurship

Melissa Paulsen is a program director with the Pulte Institute for Global Development. She leads the Entrepreneurship and Education Division, working with faculty to develop interdisciplinary approaches to entrepreneurship, education and other capacity-building programs related to global development needs. Paulsen is also a term assistant teaching professor in the Keough School of Global Affairs, and serves as a faculty advisor for Master of Global Affairs (MGA) students in the Keough School’s Integration Lab: a two-year arc for both students and institutional partners focusing on bold, complex problem solving. She is the co-director of the Keough School’s Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor, and teaches courses on social innovation and social entrepreneurship, human-centered design, consulting, and entrepreneurship in low- and middle-income contexts. In addition, Paulsen leads numerous workshops on social and traditional entrepreneurship and has managed project work, experiential and service-learning programs for undergraduate, graduate students, and professional learners in Algeria, China, India, South Africa, Lesotho, Jamaica, Haiti, Kenya, Bangladesh, Uganda, the West Bank, Ecuador and Guatemala, among others.

Most recently Paulsen was an assistant director at the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship in the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame. She served as director for the Center’s social entrepreneurship program and was concurrent assistant professional faculty in the undergraduate and graduate programs. Recent courses taught include Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Consulting, Microventure Consulting, and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries.

Paulsen holds a master’s degree in Nonprofit Administration from the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, and a BA in English and philosophy from Assumption College in Worcester, MA.