Lab Staff

Adlai Wertman is a Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship at the Marshall School of Business at the USC. He is also the founding Director of the Society and Business Lab at Marshall - a center focused on using business education and resources to address global social, environmental and health challenges.

Prior to joining the faculty at Marshall, Adlai spent seven years as President and CEO of Chrysalis - the only non-profit in Los Angeles devoted solely to helping homeless change their lives through employment. As part of its award-winning program, Chrysalis ran one of the larger social enterprises in the country - Chrysalis Enterprises - with annual revenues over $4.5 million and employing nearly 1,000 clients each year. Prior to Chrysalis, Adlai spent 18 years as an investment banker in New York and Los Angeles.

Adlai is an Advisory Board Member of the Global Health Institute and the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), a Senior Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for Religion and Civic Culture, and a Trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation. He has also served as a Commissioner of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Fund. Adlai is a frequent speaker on the issues of social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, fundraising and non-profit management.

Adlai was a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and a Wexner Heritage Fellow. Adlai earned his BA in Economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his MBA in Finance, Public Policy Management and Strategic Planning from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Nominated by students and peers, Adlai was a recipient of the 2012 USC Mellon Mentoring Award for the faculty mentoring undergraduate students category. [societybusinesslab@marshall.usc.edu]

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Abby Fifer Mandell is the Executive Director of the USC Marshall Society and Business Lab. Abby has spent her career in education and social justice with a focus on developing communities. She oversees all SBL staff, student programs, new courses, and initiatives, including the undergraduate minor in social entrepreneurship and BAEP 499: Social Innovation Design Lab. She partners with SBL faculty in designing curriculum for SBL-affiliated courses and assists with BAEP 491: Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship and BAEP 591: Social Entrepreneurship.

Prior to joining the Lab staff, Abby served as the Director of Admissions of the graduate school of education at American Jewish University in Los Angeles. As a private consultant for Brailsford & Dunlavey, she designed educational programs and facilities at Duke University, The University of Vermont, Dartmouth University, and UC Riverside, among others. Her research has been published in ACUI's The Bulletin, University Business, and NACAS's College Service.

Abby was instrumental in creating LimmudLA, a grassroots, post-denominational, Jewish learning experience in Southern California. She holds a master's degree in education and received her B.A. from the University of Virginia. Abby lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. [fifer@marshall.usc.edu]

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Jessica Levine is the Student Programs Advisor at the Society and Business Lab. She oversees undergraduate and MBA student events, including the Scholars Mentoring Program, the Fellows Program, and the Lunch and Learn series. She also assists with BAEP 491: Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship.

Before joining the Society and Business Lab, Jessica worked with a caseload of 500 undergraduate students in the Marshall Undergraduate Academic Advising Office. She advised and mentored students one-on-one and created co-curricular programming to enhance student learning outcomes aligned with the Advising Office’s student-centered mission. Additionally, Jessica developed a new year-long initiative to support incoming transfer students.

Prior to working at USC, Jessica was a lab manager at the California Institute of Technology where she did behavioral and fMRI research in cognitive neuroscience. Her research areas included social cognition, emotion, and Autism.

Jessica has a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Duke University and a Master of Education in higher education from USC. [jessicbl@marshall.usc.edu]