Christine Mahoney

Experts Meeting: The Home and Displaced People
Working Paper | Investing for Inclusion: How Refugee Lens Investing can Facilitate the Inclusion of the Forcibly Displaced into Local Host Communities

Christine Mahoney, is a Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She studies social justice advocacy, activism and direct action through social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Her first book Brussels vs. the Beltway (Georgetown) 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). The book argues we need to advance social entrepreneurship for the 70 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 (RIN) is the first impact investing and blended finance collaborative dedicated to creating durable solutions to global forced migration. She was previously the Founding Director of Social Entrepreneurship at UVA, an Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and the Director of the Center for European Studies and the Maxwell European Union Center.