Jim Kucher

Dr. J. Howard "Jim" Kucher is an internationally recognized thought leader in social entrepreneurship and the Faculty Program Manager of the Graduate Research Innovation District at the University of Maryland, Baltimore; where he also serves as a Senior Lecturer in Social Innovation. Prior to joining UMB, Kucher was an Assistant Professor in the Brown School of Business and Leadership at Stevenson University, where he taught courses in social and commercial entrepreneurship, marketing, management, sales, project management and product development. Previously, Dr. Kucher was the Founding Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the University of Baltimore, where he led the Baltimore Social Enterprise Collaborative – a program that was nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum and helped over 60 area nonprofits develop new models for meeting the needs of their constituents while increasing the sustainability of their organizations. In addition to his teaching duties, Kucher works as a consultant to leading and emerging social benefit initiatives to help them improve outcomes and increase sustainable revenues. He has successfully secured over $70m in working capital on behalf of mission-oriented enterprises and assisted over 100 area nonprofits and social enterprises in developing new models for meeting the needs of their constituents while increasing the sustainability of their organizations. Kucher earned a Doctorate in Public Administration with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship from The University of Baltimore, where he also earned an MBA with an Entrepreneurship specialization. He holds a B.A. from Kean University and has also earned certification as a project management professional and a new product development professional. Among his many honors, he has been recognized as a Baltimore Renaissance Seed Scholar, an Unsung Hero of Small Business and a Fulbright Specialist Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship. His most recent publication is "The Voice of the Constituent: Participatory Development and Opportunity Identification in Social Entrepreneurship”, which appeared in Volume 5, Issue 1 (2018) of the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation.