Vanderbilt Peabody College expands social innovation programs

Social innovation reimagines organizations and systems through human-centered design principles and through leadership to create evenhanded, sustainable solutions to pressing challenges. Considered an emerging field within the past two decades, social innovation is one that Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development has been at the forefront of pioneering.

This fall, Peabody expanded its commitment to education in social innovation by welcoming students to the new STEM-designated Organizational Development for Social Innovation master of education program. This program follows two recent offerings: the certificate in Social Impact Design and Evaluation for graduate and professional degree-seeking students at Vanderbilt and the undergraduate program in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, a focus within the major in Human and Organizational Development. All three programs are offered by the Department of Human and Organizational development.

Organizational Development for Social Innovation M.Ed.

The master of education in Organizational Development for Social Innovation prepares students to become effective organizational leaders. Graduates of the program can enter a range of professions, including as strategists, directors of learning and culture, impact measurement analysts, change management consultants and foundation strategy and grants managers. No matter where they take their careers, students will be prepared to tackle complex social challenges by designing and implementing systems-informed solutions.

The 30-credit hour curriculum can be completed in two or three semesters. Graduates gain the professional skills needed to analyze social problems, develop innovative solutions and measure their results.

Ashmeet Oberoi, associate professor of the practice, serves as the program's director. In her work, she evaluates programs within organizations and institutions to understand how they promote well-being and social change across various communities.

"This program envisions a new kind of leader - one who can reimagine organizations as engines for social innovation," Oberoi said. "The vision for this program is to cultivate changemakers who lead organizations that are innovative, inclusive, and built for impact -whether in nonprofits, public agencies or socially responsible enterprises."

Certificate in Social Impact Design and Evaluation

Peabody began offering the certificate in Social Impact Design and Evaluation last year as a professionally focused add-on to other Vanderbilt graduate or professional degrees. The curriculum educates students to design and assess significant changes that impact pressing social challenges within government, nonprofit, academic and corporate settings.

Social impact design and evaluation is a highly interdisciplinary field, combining program and policy design and evaluation, human development, organizational development and community development. It also incorporates innovations and perspectives such as implementation science, human-centered design, social innovation and data science.

Students who graduate with a certificate in Social Impact Design and Evaluation can become program evaluators, social innovators, nonprofit leaders, policy analysts, and corporate environmental, social and government officers.

Sarah Suiter, professor of the practice, serves as director of the certificate program. Her research focuses on evaluating university-based efforts to partner with community organizations and other institutions to support community-driven health innovation. She also works with community-based organizations in Nashville to build evaluation capacity.

"The goal of the certificate is to prepare students to enter the workplace and be able to answer the questions: What is working? For whom? And in what contexts? Students will be prepared with knowledge and tools to design and assess social impact initiatives in various contexts," Suiter said.

Undergraduate education in Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is a subcategory of social innovation geared toward creating organizations that combine the principles of mission-centered work and entrepreneurship.

Undergraduate students in the Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship program take courses across the three domains of the major in Human and Organizational Development, which introduces them to social innovation and social entrepreneurship at the individual, organizational, and community and society levels. At the end of the program, they complete a capstone course, focusing on social innovation and entrepreneurship as vehicles for delivering human-centered change to organizations and communities.

The types of collaboration that occur in Jeremy Payne's course, Building a Design-Driven Culture, reflect how the program aims to educate students in creating human-centered organizations. "Students learn the process of human-centered design. They practice it within the class and then connect with a community partner to learn in depth about their organization. Students then pitch ideas to improve products, services, physical spaces and more," said Payne, senior lecturer of human and organizational development and director of the SISE program.

For the past four semesters, students in his course have collaborated with Turnip Green Creative Reuse, a non-profit that collects donated hard-to-recycle materials and redistributes them to the community through a shopping center, education programs and studio workshops. Using a human-centered design process, students in this semester's class are focused on strengthening Turnip Green's brand identity.

"The questions and suggestions brought to Turnip Green through this partnership have been creative and insightful - consistently challenging us to think more critically about how we engage with the community," said Erin Boddy, MEd'19, executive director of Turnip Green and graduate of Peabody's Community Development and Action master's degree program.

"Earlier this year, we incorporated student insights over the past few semesters as a valuable voice in our decision-making for the new brand. I am excited the collaboration with Jeremy Payne's course is continuing this semester, as it has been invaluable in helping us to strengthen our organization's mission and programming, and ultimately better serve the community," Boddy said.

Educating human-centered leaders

Peabody College's comprehensive programs in social innovation educate a new generation of leaders who envision organizations as drivers of human flourishing and societal change. As graduates of these programs enter roles as social innovation strategists, nonprofit leaders, and change management consultants, their impact will be felt far beyond individual careers, potentially transforming entire organizations and systems toward more innovative and effective operations.