Shantae Edwards
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service
Shantae J. Edwards is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. As a social entrepreneur, empowerment speaker and impact coach for the last 11 years, Shantae J. is committed to motivating, facilitating and building relationships for the purposes of accessing equity, education, social and economic sustainability. She applies these concepts in her own businesses and social endeavors.
Using her BA in Communications and her MBA with a focus in Marketing, Shantae J. brings her professional and interpersonal skills to the table to give guidance to operate and approach life being in action and using “I WILL” as a motivator to having a productive life and a fulfilling purpose-driven career.
In 2012, Shantae J. became a Dream Director with The Future Project where through her work supported high school social entrepreneurs to turn their passions into social impact endeavors. In that same year she joined the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Through this, she, along with other leaders worldwide implemented sustainable projects impacting communities that create a better future through education, environmental, social entrepreneurship and the arts both locally and globally.
Shantae J.’s May 2016 TED Talk, “You Are Enough,” explains exactly how she has been able to spread her message of embracing your own humanity and the humanity of others in order to improve yourself on an individual and community basis.
Growing up, Shantae J. learned many of the keys she uses to empower her clients from her mother, Marlene Edwards. These lessons influenced Shantae J. to empower people to improve their lives by taking ownership of their stories and being committed changemakers.
Currently Shantae J. works as Director of Communications for the New York State Assembly and Adjunct Professor.
This course is designed for upper-class undergraduates who have a social innovation project, entrepreneurial business, or CSR idea to develop or implement. Also welcome to the course are students who would like to learn and practice success skills and employment strategies, and are willing to participate in class teams with other students who have project ideas. To bring the dynamic world of social innovation fully into the classroom, this course will provide: business leadership training and the skills to develop a clear social vision and values, viable business-modeling practices and feasible financial projections— i.e. how to structure an organization for different funding strategies, practice in pitching and promoting an idea, and tips on launching a start-up with social impact. Classes are enhanced with expert guest teachers and speakers, case studies and experiential exercises. This course will help students develop their individual or team projects, workshop how to create maximum social impact after graduation, build their resumes and develop critical skills for the process of finding or creating their future jobs.
This course is designed for upper-class undergraduates who have a social innovation project, entrepreneurial business, or CSR idea to develop or implement. Also welcome to the course are students who would like to learn and practice success skills and employment strategies, and are willing to participate in class teams with other students who have project ideas. To bring the dynamic world of social innovation fully into the classroom, this course will provide: business leadership training and the skills to develop a clear social vision and values, viable business-modeling practices and feasible financial projections— i.e. how to structure an organization for different funding strategies, practice in pitching and promoting an idea, and tips on launching a start-up with social impact. Classes are enhanced with expert guest teachers and speakers, case studies and experiential exercises. This course will help students develop their individual or team projects, workshop how to create maximum social impact after graduation, build their resumes and develop critical skills for the process of finding or creating their future jobs.
This course is designed for upper-class undergraduates who have a social innovation project, entrepreneurial business, or CSR idea to develop or implement. Also welcome to the course are students who would like to learn and practice success skills and employment strategies, and are willing to participate in class teams with other students who have project ideas. To bring the dynamic world of social innovation fully into the classroom, this course will provide: business leadership training and the skills to develop a clear social vision and values, viable business-modeling practices and feasible financial projections— i.e. how to structure an organization for different funding strategies, practice in pitching and promoting an idea, and tips on launching a start-up with social impact. Classes are enhanced with expert guest teachers and speakers, case studies and experiential exercises. This course will help students develop their individual or team projects, workshop how to create maximum social impact after graduation, build their resumes and develop critical skills for the process of finding or creating their future jobs.
This course is designed for upper-class undergraduates who have a social innovation project, entrepreneurial business, or CSR idea to develop or implement. Also welcome to the course are students who would like to learn and practice success skills and employment strategies, and are willing to participate in class teams with other students who have project ideas. To bring the dynamic world of social innovation fully into the classroom, this course will provide: business leadership training and the skills to develop a clear social vision and values, viable business-modeling practices and feasible financial projections— i.e. how to structure an organization for different funding strategies, practice in pitching and promoting an idea, and tips on launching a start-up with social impact. Classes are enhanced with expert guest teachers and speakers, case studies and experiential exercises. This course will help students develop their individual or team projects, workshop how to create maximum social impact after graduation, build their resumes and develop critical skills for the process of finding or creating their future jobs.
The goal of this course is to introduce you to management skills for potential service in the public and nonprofit sectors. The course provides you with tools to diagnose and solve organizational problems, to influence the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations, and to lead impactful public service organizations.
You presumably choose this course because you want to have a positive impact in the world. Your interest could be affordable housing, more bicycle lanes, arts programs for disadvantaged kids or access to quality pre-natal care. It could be making sure public policies are based on the best possible evidence, or that nonprofits are financially solvent, or that staff are treated fairly and respectfully. Whatever your passion, you can only realize that impact by mastering organizational processes. Organizations are the way work gets organized, coordinated, and accomplished. Knowing how organizations work – how to work within them – are perhaps the most powerful tools you can have.
A key management task is to assemble the skills, talents, and resources of individuals and groups into those combinations that best solve the organizational problems at hand. You must manage people, information, and processes to accomplish organizational goals; you must make things happen, and often not under conditions or timeframes of your own choosing; and you must learn from the challenges you experience. The successful execution of these tasks requires leaders to understand what skills and abilities they bring to and need from their teams and organizations, to formulate a mission and strategy, to make effective and ethical decisions, to recruit, influence and motivate diverse individuals, to optimize the structure of their organization, to measure and improve performance, and to drive organizational change.
The course prepares you to achieve these objectives by providing you with fundamental frameworks and tools developed from the behavioral and social sciences and tested by leaders in organizations representing all sectors of the economy. In addition to lectures, the course includes readings and analyzing case studies, engaging in role-playing exercises and a semester long team project to design and create the components of a virtual nonprofit organization. Student teams will be 3-5 students, and will require team time in addition to scheduled course hours.