Taylor Center names three Social Entrepreneurship Professors

The Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking, which offers tools, knowledge and support university-wide to transform ideas into solutions for social and environmental challenges, has selected Tulane University faculty members Marcus Coleman, Aron Culotta and Michael Hoerger to serve as Social Entrepreneurship Professors from 2026 to 2031.

Coleman has been named the Louise and Leonard Riggio Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, Culotta the Greenberg Family Professor of Social Entrepreneurship and Hoerger the Siegel Professor in Social Entrepreneurship.

The Taylor Center's Social Entrepreneurship Professors form an interdisciplinary group of nine faculty members who develop and support social and environmental innovation across Tulane. Each named professorship provides $60,000 over five years to support the recipient's research, scholarship and community engagement.

Coleman directs Tulane's Strategy, Leadership and Analytics Minor program and is a professor of practice in the Department of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts. Through his teaching and scholarship, he uses food systems, which include food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste management, as a lens for understanding leadership, strategy and social change.

"This professorship is an exciting opportunity to deepen the connection between my teaching and community engagement," Coleman said. "I look forward to using this platform to strengthen community partnerships and create spaces where students and community leaders can work together to reimagine systems, explore new possibilities and turn ideas into solutions that create lasting impact."

Raised in Louisiana's rural Mississippi River Delta region, Coleman focuses on the structural issues affecting rural food systems. His work integrates ethical leadership, data-informed decision-making, experiential learning and interdisciplinary collaboration to help students and organizations build stronger, more resilient communities.

Culotta is the Nicholas J. Altiero Professor of Computer Science in the School of Science and Engineering and director of the Jurist Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Center for Community-Engaged Artificial Intelligence. His human-centered AI research encompasses natural language processing, social network analysis and machine learning, with applications in public health, emergency response, criminal justice and civic transparency.

"My research focuses on developing AI tools in collaboration with communities, and this professorship will help connect that work with the Taylor Center's expertise in design, social innovation and community engagement," Culotta said. "I'm especially interested in creating opportunities for social innovation and social entrepreneurship students, as well as computer science students, to collaborate on AI projects with community partners."

Hoerger, an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry in the School of Medicine, is a licensed clinical psychologist and health scientist. He is the founding program lead for population science at the Tulane Cancer Center and leads the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative. His research focuses on patient-centered communication, healthcare decision-making, palliative care and support for patients and families facing serious illnesses.

"My work focuses on translating complex data into digestible information that patients, families and communities can use readily to make empowered decisions about prevention and care related to cancer, COVID-19 and other chronic and serious illnesses," Hoerger said. "I am proud to collaborate with students, scientists, clinicians and community members to elevate patients' voices."

As a Social Entrepreneurship Professor, Hoerger will work to connect Tulane's uptown and downtown campuses with communities in Louisiana and beyond. He will also help students understand the practical and ethical challenges of enacting change.