Life Passions and Hobbies
My absolute favorite activity is to be on the beach. So, I try to go as much as I can. Being half-Cuban, I’m an avid salsa dancer. I also love to travel.
I keep my personal life private and I’m more traditional than people usually expect me to be. I am a strong believer in God and spirituality. Every day, I look forward to starting my day with God’s guidance.
My Life
Rasheda La bella
At Herbert H. Lehman College, my alma mater.
I was born and raised in the Bronx, New York to Cuban and Jamaican immigrant parents. I had a unique and lively childhood. My father Robert “Jah Wise” Campbell is the head Dancehall Selector of the award-winning Dancehall Sound named Tippa Tone. He is also a record collector, artist, and acted in the movie “Rockers.”
His sister, my aunt Cecile Campbell, was a Harmony Vocalist for Bob Marley and The Wailers. She was best friends with Bob Marley’s wife Rita Marley whom she formed the group Soul Sisters with. I have several other family members in the reggae music industry.
Following in my family’s entertainment footsteps, I attended Barbizon Modeling School in Midtown Manhattan where I learned to do print modeling, commercials, runway shows, and more. I loved Barbizon, but I decided that I would go Norman Thomas Business High School in Midtown at the age of 14, which is where I studied business and psychology and then decided to mix the two together - social entrepreneurship.
In college, I fell in love with traveling and helping communities around the world. I learned how to fundraise and was able to raise thousands of dollars to do projects like rebuilding houses that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, volunteering at an asylum seeker shelter in Israel, participating in a female empowerment program in Morocco, and to do a host of other poverty alleviation service projects throughout U.S.
Becoming Dr. Weaver
Filming the “What is Social Entrepreneurship?” Documentary
In 2013, I was accepted into Rutgers University’s PhD program in Public Affairs-Community Development. I spent years studying social entrepreneurship (the process of using entrepreneurship to combat social problems). My dissertation is the 1st large-scale study of the social, economic, and legal activities of social enterprises in the United States.
I was an Assistant Professor in academia for five years. I was an Assistant Professor of Community Entrepreneurship at the University of Vermont and an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Iona College (now Iona University). I have taught entrepreneurship to over 1,000 students globally. In 2018, I created Weaver’s Social Enterprise Directory, Inc. to study and track social enterprise activity across the United States. I recently renamed it “The International Institute for Social Entrepreneurship” and revamped it into becoming a training institute for aspiring and early-stage social entrepreneurs.
My textbook entitled “Social Entrepreneurship: A Practical Introduction” was released in 2022 and is now being used in over 10 university classrooms around the world. In 2023, I became sponsored by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Global African Descent Social Entrepreneurship Network (ADSEN). ADSEN is currently in the beginning stages of its development.
MARRIAGE and family
I met my late husband Alex Weaver while I was doing my PhD. We now have two beautiful children together. Alex and I made unbelievable memories together while being together for almost a decade. However, he passed away in 2022. I will never forget how loved, appreciated, and taken care of Alex made me feel from our first date and on.
In honor of Alex, my organization, the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurship (IISE), donates some of our profits to Teen Challenge, an organization that he participated in as a teenager.