My Life

Rasheda La bella

I am originally from the Bronx, New York though I’ve studied in both Italy and Israel. My parents are Cuban and Jamaican immigrants. I have two sisters and a brother and I come from a large family. I have somewhere around 80 first and second cousins. 

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 Manhattan, which is where I studied business and psychology. Growing up in the Bronx inspired me to explore how business can be used as a tool to alleviate poverty. 

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

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.

family LIFE

I am a pretty hands-on mama bear. I have two beautiful children with my late husband Alex Weaver. Alex and I made unbelievable memories together for almost a decade. He was a great husband and father that provided our children and myself with a beautiful life. In honor of Alex, The International Institute for Social Entrepreneurship (IISE), donates some of our profits to Teen Challenge, an organization that he participated in as a teenager.