NESsT Entrepreneur-in-Residence (May 2006 - present; Santiago)

NESsTER Project: NESsT- Willam Davidson Institute Latin American Social Enterprise Symposium; NESsT marketing and public relations

"NESsT is an innovative organization that nurtures and empowers NGOs to fulfill their mission.  Co-founder & CEO Nicole Etchart gave a very passionate and inspirational talk at my school, University of Michigan, which encouraged me to learn more about social enterprises.  I was very excited about the opportunity to spend a summer with NESsT, having worked in the nonprofit sector prior to business school; I understand the value of helping NGOs strengthen their financial base.  I look forward to making a small impact and increasing awareness about the important work that NESsT is doing."

Background: Sheila D. Collins is a 2006 MBA graduate from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Her concentration was in Corporate Strategy and Marketing.  

Sheila has honed in on her leadership skills through various roles.  Over the past school year, Sheila served as President of her 70 member section.  She was elected as the 2005-2006 Consortium Liaison and Conference Chair for the Black Business Student Association (BBSA) 30th Anniversary Conference.

While juggling a demanding course load, Sheila complemented her formal education by writing business plans and participating in several case competitions.  She recently won the prestigious Executive Leadership Council Business Case Competition, won 1st place in the BBSA Boston Consulting Group Case Competition, won the Social Impact Award, won the Dare to Dream Business Concept Grant and came runner up in the P&G Global Citizenship Challenge. 

Prior to school Sheila was a Community Manager of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies where she was responsible for all recruitment, communication, and marketing to raise public awareness of NABRE.  Sheila provided leadership to the member organizations of NABRE by creating partnerships with foundations and businesses.  Prior to the Joint Center Sheila created and ran a start-up business called The Creative Training Dept., Inc. an e-learning company that trained professionals for web development. Preceding her start-up, Sheila held an Assistant Treasurer post at Chase Manhattan Bank where she was the Internet Marketing Manager in the Bank’s National Consumer Service Division.  There she oversaw several projects, all focused on enhancing the customer’s experience and increasing revenues for online banking. 

While working in banking, Sheila proactively created Piggy Bank University, money management workshops to develop a solution to help address the economic disparities that existed between racial groups. 

A native of Brooklyn, NY Sheila obtained a bachelor’s degree cum laude from Long Island University and graduated a semester early with a double major in Marketing and Finance.

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