About Us | Innovate Carolina

October 19, 2020

SI @ UNC Team

Melissa Carrier
Director, Office of Social Innovation

Melissa Carrier is a professor of the practice in the Department of Public Policy and the director of the Office of Social Innovation at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is the founder and former executive director of the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Melissa joined the Smith School in the 2006 after a decade of leading organizational growth for technology companies. Before launching the Center for Social Value Creation in 2009, Melissa led venture investment programs at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. During this time, she noticed increasing student interest in working for and creating companies that address social and environmental issues through the tools of business. She created the Social Venture Consulting program, a platform for students to apply their skills in designing scalable solutions for nonprofit and social enterprise organizations. At the Center for Social Value Creation, Melissa led the Center’s strategic direction across co-curricular programs, curricula, research and career. In collaboration with the Provost’s office, Melissa led cross-campus initiatives to embed social entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland and served as UMD’s Ashoka U Changemaker Campus Change Leader. Melissa taught undergraduate and graduate courses in social entrepreneurship and sustainability, receiving the Top 10% teaching award each year. She also served as Assistant Dean for the Office of Global Initiatives.

Melissa currently lives with her husband, three boys and flat-coated retriever in Raleigh, NC. She serves as a strategic consultant to corporations and universities including University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Ohio State University and an MBA with Honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Campus Y

Jakelin Bonilla
Social Innovation Initiatives Coordinator, Campus Y

Sista Jakelin “Jaki” Bonilla graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2012 with a major in Global Studies and a minor in Entrepreneurship. At UNC, she founded Linking Immigrants to New Communities, which helps ease the transition of recent immigrants through student interaction and awareness-raising in the community, and served on the UNC Emerging Communities Taskforce that established the Carolina Latina/o Collaborative, dedicated to developing a greater awareness of Latina/o issues, cultures and identities. Jakelin also conducted ethnographic research and volunteered in Central and South America, served as co-chair of the Great Decisions Program, mentored in the Scholars Latino Initiative, and worked as a Senior Intern in the Bonners Leaders Program at the Campus Y. After graduating from UNC she served as the director of the Campus Y’s Global Gap Year Fellowship for three years before she was awarded the Henry Luce Scholarship and worked at the United Nations Official Migration Agency-International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Thailand. Jakelin has recently returned to the Campus Y to continue supporting students’ social justice and social innovation initiatives.

Near Peer Mentors

Near Peer Mentors are experienced student social entrepreneurs who support, mentor, and guide fellow student entrepreneurs through the social innovation process. Near Peer Mentors also serve as advocates for SI@UNC and connect students, the university and the surrounding community for meaningful impact.

Anum Imran
Near Peer Mentor

Anum Imran ’21 is a senior double majoring in political science and statistics and analytics. She is co-founder and director of business development for Traditional Kitchens, a refugee women-led cooperative cookery in Chapel Hill.

Angel Patel
Near Peer Mentor

Angelina Patel ’21 is the founder of Kids Code, an Innovation Scholar and a senior in computer science. So far, she’s grown Kids Code from her hometown of Savannah to Chapel Hill and Durham.