Christian was born and raised in the Pacific island of Guam. He moved to Los Angeles to earn a degree in Biomedical Engineering at USC. Christian worked in product development for several years before pursuing a career in operational excellence. His experience stretches from small, privately-funded research labs to Fortune 500 companies in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries. Currently Christian works for a large, non-profit healthcare organization as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, leading organizational transformations that improve hospital operations and patient care. He is also pursuing his MBA at USC with emphasis on Finance and Healthcare. Christian wants to lead a career dedicated to lowering the barriers to high-quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare to those in need. In the last eleven years, Christian has worked with HOPE Worldwide in various projects including HOPE Youth Corps, Day-On HOPE, and most recently, Hoops for HOPE which raised funds for a free hospital in Cambodia.

Jonathancomes to Marshall by way of San Francisco, where he spent four years managing film production and post-production. He worked on projects ranging from documentaries to advertising for Fortune 500 companies. He is eager to apply background in managing creative, socially-aware projects in a career managing the development of socially innovative products and technology. Jonathan received his B.A from Oberlin College with a major in Environmental Studies and a Minor in Studio Art.

After graduating from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology, Veronica Chen was drawn to the world of education after discovering her love and talent for teaching children. As a result, she went back to school and completed her California mathematics high school teaching credential and Master in Education at UCLA. Since then, Veronica has been teaching 10th and 11th grade mathematics in low-income, urban schools in Los Angeles. Confronted with the struggles of inner-city students on a daily basis, Veronica became more impassioned to change the field of education. What started as a simple desire to help children became the driving force behind her interest in social entrepreneurship. Accordingly, Veronica applied to Marshall to develop her entrepreneur skills in hopes of one day changing the lives of inner-city, low-income students through education reform inside and outside the classroom. In her spare time, Veronica enjoys ballroom dancing, karaoking and MC-ing for fundraising events in the Asian American Community. She is very honored to be selected as a member of the SBL Fellowship, Class of 2013.

Stephen grew up in Southern California and during that time was exposed to international social work through the service organization Tzu-Chi. He has undergraduate degrees in business and political economy from UC Berkeley. He began his career in Taiwan with a focus on equity sales, afterwards, he moved to Singapore were he joined a startup company that sought to commercialize energy-efficient technology. It is there that he had the opportunity to explore his interest in carbon credits, and worked to structure financing agreements between corporations, governments, and external investors. The intersection between finance and sustainable/social goals continues to be an area of strong interest for Stephen and has given a seminar on the subject at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. He is very excited to be at USC and looks forward to exploring new opportunities and social entrepreneurship.

Cristian grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and received his BSE in Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in North Carolina. Before pursuing his MBA at the Marshall School of Business, he served as a healthcare technologist/strategic business analyst with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Innovation Team led by the Chief Technology Officer. His main focus was on innovation and open government efforts, ensuring that public health information is easily accessible and usable by entrepreneurs and innovators. Cristian has also served as chairman of the board of directors for both the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, a Washington, D.C., based nonprofit focusing on Asian American leadership development, and Lambda Phi Epsilon National Fraternity, Inc, a fraternal organization. His goal is to continue in the field of healthcare technology, positively transforming it through business and technology.

Prior to joining Marshall Sean worked at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula serving as the Director of the Center for a New Generation and leading the organization's College Bound Initiative with the goal of increasing the 35% high school graduation rate in the communities he served. He was also a founding partner of GetConnects, a social enterprise that linked minority college students with internship and entry level job opportunities. Sean has always had the desire to transform low-income communities. He has developed a solid understanding the complexity and connectedness of issues facing these communities, and was attracted to the Society and Business Lab as its focus is strongly aligned with his own mission and beliefs. SBL nurtures leaders who desire to use business models as a means of tackling the difficult issues facing our world, something Sean hopes to continue doing as he continues his career as he seeks to create significant, sustainable, and systemic change in low income communities through community organization, educational reform, and economic development.

A Santa Monica native, Jessica spent the year prior to Marshall in Thailand working with a local non-governmental organization that assists migrant and refugee populations from Burma settle in Thailand. Prior to her work there, Jessica spent two years in Washington, DC, where she managed The Diane and Norman Bernstein Foundation, a philanthropic foundation, and served as the director of programs and operations at DC Action for Children, Washington's oldest children's advocacy organization. During her free time, Jessica started a non-profit organization dedicated to combatting sex trafficking to Israel and served as a director for the Board of Young Trustees of ThinkImpact, a non-profit organization that catalyzes social businesses in Africa. Jessica graduated in 2007 from the University of Michigan where she studied Political Science.

Cohort 2 MBA '12

After graduating with a degree in Law from the University of Tokyo, Takuya began work at the Ministry of Finance of Japan. Through various policy projects, Takuya became interested in the ways in which public finance policy can enhance private capital flow to the social sector. He came to Marshall to study finance, and hopes that through the Society and Business lab, he will gain a deep understanding of the relationship between the nonprofit and private sectors in relation to social change. After graduation, Takuya will return to Japan and hopes to use his knowledge to contribute to a more innovate policy at the Ministry of Finance.

Sharmin received her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Boston University. Soon after graduating, she moved back to her hometown of Southern California to pursue her passion for brand marketing at various consumer product companies. Prior to starting the USC Marshall MBA.PM program, she joined her family business, which manufactures and markets vitamin products. With the help of Marshall's Society and Business Lab, Sharmin hopes to break into the non-profit consulting industry, working with organizations focused on children's right and healthcare issues. Sharmin's long-term goal is to develop her family business into a socially responsible global brand in the in the nutritional health industry.

Arjun is a professional Audiologist and Speech Pathologist and has worked in healthcare and education industries for over eight years. Having been raised in India, he is acutely aware of the issues people face when they cannot access affordable and quality education or healthcare. In the past, Arjun has worked with Rotary Club International and GN Resound Inc. to bring hearing diagnostics and rehabilitative services to the marginal sections of the Indian society. Through the Marshall School and the Society and Business Lab, he hopes to bring about a positive change in people lives by formulating newer channels of service delivery and improving access to such services. In 2011, Arjun interned with USC University Hospital/USC Norris Cancer Hospital.

Jessica earned her undergraduate degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. After graduation, she worked for Deloitte Consulting in the strategy and operations service area and for Oakwood Worldwide as an operations analyst. Jessica pursued her passion to serve her community outside of the workplace. She has committed her time to AmeriCorps, and America Reads and volunteering for Education First. Jessica aspires to couple her professional experience in strategy and operations with her passion for serving the community. As a fellow of Marshall's Society and Business Lab, Jessica aims to gain a greater understanding of ways in which business principles can be used, for underserved communities, to increase access to education, healthcare and economic mobility. She is seeking career opportunities in the fields of non-profit management, education, and healthcare. In 2011, Jessica interned with LAUSD as an Education Pioneers Fellow.

Cohort 1 MBA '11