Board Member Spotlight: Stephanie Raible

Stephanie Raible's best advice for USASBE conference attendees has nothing to do with which sessions to attend. "Pay attention to the spaces in between," she says: the conversations after a session ends, the introductions between events, the time spent just getting to know someone new. Those in-between moments haven't just shaped her conference experience. They've shaped her career too, including connecting her with future co-authors and collaborators.

Raible, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware's Book School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, first connected with USASBE in 2018 through the Doctoral Consortium, when she was looking for a way into the entrepreneurship community. One thing led to another, including the Social Entrepreneurship SIG, Teaching and Learning Scholars, the Rural Entrepreneurship certificate program, task forces, and the Conference Commission. By the time she joined the Board, it didn't feel like a huge leap so much as one more thing to embrace and say “yes” to.

That has become something of a pattern for her. More than 35 years after quitting ballet as a kid, Raible recently signed back up for a class. Not because she's any good at it (she will tell you she isn't), but because she would rather feel a little out of place trying something than wonder what would have happened if she had not tried at all.

This year, she stepped into a new role as Chair of the USASBE Board of Directors, and she already loves the wider view it offers. She enjoys hearing different ideas, meeting people she would not otherwise cross paths with, and finding ways for members to stay connected beyond just the annual conference.

While Raible did not land in entrepreneurship education until her 30s, she will point out the groundwork was there long before that. Her mother worked as a lab instructor at a community college, and her father runs his own small business. Somewhere between the two of them, she picked up the instinct to create her own path and not to let other people define what she was capable of, a lesson that still shapes how she approaches her work today.

It also shows up directly in her research. Raible studies what she frames as “everyday entrepreneurship,” including many women entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, lifestyle entrepreneurs, community-based businesses, and arts and cultural entrepreneurs. Although venture-backed startups get most of the attention, Raible noted that is not who she is interested in. “I research those who might not recognize themselves in entrepreneurial stereotypes,” she says, “to identify how we can better support and encourage others like them.”

Raible finds USASBE to be that same kind of “down-to-earth” community, one built on genuine connection and authenticity. “It is beyond a professional network,” she explained. “It is dedicated people who inspire us, elevate our committees and conferences, and eventually become lifelong friends.” As Board Chair, her hope is straightforward: that more members discover the magic of the USASBE community and, hopefully, well before she did.