The Politics of Well-being Series: Civil Society and Well-Being

What role do civil society organizations play in shaping well-being? Join us as we explore how nonprofit institutions, faith-based organizations, and philanthropic foundations contribute to — and sometimes complicate — efforts to improve public welfare. Drawing from real-world examples, our panel will consider how resource distribution, civic engagement, and policy implementation intersect in pursuit of collective well-being.

With Ram Cnaan, Fedmida Handy, and Katherina Rosqueta. Moderated by Carleigh O’Neill

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Speaker Biographies:

Dr. Ram A. Cnaan is a Professor and Director, Program for Religion and Social Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice. He is the faculty founder of the Goldring Reentry Initiative which works to reduce recidivism. He is also a Global Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University Graduate Institute of Peace, South Korea. Professor Cnaan served as president of ARNOVA (Association for Research on nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary action). He is the originator of the first practice doctorate degree in social work (DSW) which is now in its 15th year and replicated by more than 46 USA and 17 Chinese universities. He is now chairing the innovative practice doctorate degree in nonprofit administration (DNPA) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr Cnaan received his doctorate degree from the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, and his B.S.W. and M.S.W. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals on a variety of social issues and serves on the editorial boards of ten academic journals. He is the author or editor of ten academic books including: The Other Philadelphia Story: How Local Congregations Support Quality of Life in Urban America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), Cases in innovative nonprofits: Organizations that make a difference (Sage, 2014), and Handbook of community movement and local organizations in the 21st century (Springer, 2018). He is considered an international expert in the areas of faith-based social organizations, social innovation, volunteering, prisoners’ reentry, community intervention, and social policy. He lectures widely and teaches regularly in four countries.

Femida Handy is Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and the former Director of the PhD program. Her research and teaching focus on the economics of the nonprofit sector, volunteering, philanthropy, nonprofit management, environmental issues, entrepreneurship, and microfinance.

Dr. Handy served as the Editor-in-Chief of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly from 2010-2016, the premier journal in the field, and serves on the editorial board of several academic journals. Professor Handy has published widely in a variety scientific journals on a variety of nonprofit-related topics, and her work has garnered many awards. Her most recent co-authored book is Ethical–decision making for social impact and examines the ethical dilemmas arising in nonprofits One area of prominence is her scholarship on volunteering and philanthropy, in an international context. Her recent co-authored books on philanthropy are The Practice and Promise of Philanthropy in India (2016) and as well the award-winning book, The Palgrave Research Companion to Global Philanthropy (2015), which she co-edited. She has also written on environmental issues, including a children’s book that introduces the concept of ecological footprint.

Professor Handy‘s research projects include a BSF funded grant on intergenerational transmission of environmental motives and behaviors in a cross country comparison (US, Israel and Korea), a NIH funded research that investigates if and how autistic youth benefit by volunteering, social innovations in nonprofits, volunteering in sports organizations, if and how recent immigrants benefit by volunteering, and health wellbeing benefits of volunteering as well as examining what happens to those who must retire out of volunteering

Before coming to Penn, Professor Handy was an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, Canada where she currently holds the position of Senior Scholar.

Katherina ‘Kat’ M. Rosqueta is the founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, faculty co-director of High Impact Philanthropy Academy, adjunct faculty in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2), and a senior fellow at the Wharton Center on Leadership & Change Management. Founded as a collaboration between SP2 and alumni of the Wharton School, the Center for High Impact Philanthropy is the premier source of knowledge and education on how philanthropy can do more good.

Before accepting her appointment to launch the Center, Kat was a consultant with McKinsey & Company; a consultant to the founding team of New Schools Venture Fund; founding director of Board Match Plus, a San Francisco program dedicated to strengthening nonprofit boards; and program manager of Wells Fargo’s Corporate Community Development Group.

Kat serves on the national board of Greenlight Fund, a venture philanthropy fund dedicated to addressing urgent social needs in cities around the United States, and co-chairs Greenlight Fund Philadelphia. She is a member of the Capitalization Committee of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation. She is the former chair of the board of Candid (merger of Foundation Center and Guidestar), the world’s largest source of information on nonprofits and foundations. Her past civic leadership positions include board president of La Casa de las Madres (San Francisco’s oldest and largest shelter for battered women and their children), chair of the United Way’s Bay Area Week of Caring, and co-founder and executive committee member of the Women’s MBA Network.

Her work and comments have been cited in numerous publications including the New York Times, Slate, Money Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. She speaks frequently on social impact management and philanthropy and has lectured at the Wharton Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, University of California Haas School of Business, and the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management.

Kat received her a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was the 2012 recipient of the Wharton Women in Business Kathleen McDonald Distinguished Alumna Award, a 2011 recipient of the Brava! Women Business Achievement Award, the 2020 recipient of the Margaret Bailey Speer Award, and named one of Unboxed Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 100, a list of people, organizations and companies making a positive difference in our world.