Vanessa Burbano

Vanessa Burbano is the Donald C. Waite III Associate Professor of Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School, with tenure. She holds a Ph.D. from UCLA Anderson School of Management and an M.P.A. from Princeton University. Her research focuses on corporate social responsibility, employee motivation, and strategic implications of firms' socially responsible practices. She teaches the core Strategy Formulation course and serves as Corporate Engagement Director and Executive Committee Member of the NSF-funded LEAP Center for climate modeling research.

Education:

• B.A., University of Pennsylvania (2002)
• M.A., Universidad Complutense (2003)
• M.P.A., Princeton Woodrow Wilson School (2009)
• M.A., UCLA Anderson (2011)
• Ph.D., UCLA Anderson (2015)

Research Interests: Her work examines how CSR impacts employee behavior, including field experiments on socio-political stance effects, gig worker misconduct, and diversity in applicant pools. Key themes include strategic CSR, labor market dynamics, and the intersection of corporate strategy with public good.

Media & Recognition: Her research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, and Financial Times. Awards include the 2021 Emerging Scholar Award and recognition in Poets & Quants' Best 40 Under 40 Professors (2019).

Labs/Teams: Leads NSF-funded LEAP Center's corporate engagement initiatives, focusing on improving climate change projections through AI and physics integration.