About Us
The team at Radiate Works brings together a unique blend of expertise and experience in the public and private sectors. Our diverse skill sets enable us to bring complementary sensibilities to our projects, level-setting the landscape and providing a holistic approach to problem solving.
As both strategists and educators we are prepared to guide your progress and assist with knowledge gaps along the way.
Elizabeth Benefield
Co-Founder & Partner
“For over 30 years I have been combining a deep commitment to social justice with a passion for teaching young people how to become aspirational change leaders. Radiate Works is the culmination of a career dedicated to building strategic bridges across sectors and difference, and to creative problem solving. Through skilled facilitation, I love nothing more than uncovering the “a-has” and finding points of collaboration. Solid strategic thinking and building things from the ground up characterize ten years in the nonprofit sector and almost twenty years in higher education. In my previous role as Director of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at NC State, I led a campus wide effort to create and nurture an entrepreneurial ecosystem built on strong external partnerships and focused on embedding impact practices, with the goal of empowering students to become engaged citizens of the world.”
After relocating to North Carolina from Ohio in 1988, Elizabeth worked for ten years as Director of Development then Assistant Dean for Advancement at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work where she raised over $20 million in capital and academic support. She secured private and public funds to build the school’s PhD program, establish five professorships and construct a new building. She developed and taught graduate level classes in nonprofit management, and co-authored a book on nonprofit fundraising. Passionate about blending the expertise of diverse sectors, she launched a social enterprise, the Rosie Group, to help nonprofits innovate in the areas of sustainability and social entrepreneurship. She spent fifteen years as a consultant to social sector and mission-driven businesses with a focus on high-level strategic work to help them embed innovative practices with the goal of creating sustainable impact. Elizabeth is beginning her tenth year at NC State University as Director of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a position in which she was responsible for designing the campus-wide vision for social entrepreneurship. She established the university’s Social Entrepreneur in Residence program, its TEDx-style COMx series and Dinners With Purpose events. She designed and launched the NC State Social Innovation Fellows in fall 2017 and manages all operations. Elizabeth holds an MA from Duke University and a BA from the College of Wooster. She has two grown children, both of whom attended UNC system schools. She loves to travel, garden, practice yoga, and champion social justice, especially for women and girls.
Melissa Carrier
Co-Founder & Partner
“With over 25 years of experience leading strategic initiatives and building organizations, I bring to Radiate Works a commitment to results. Through creative and community-centered approaches, I identify and capitalize on opportunities for organizations to adapt and grow as transformational leaders. An engineer by training, I love to design and implement solutions to complex problems across organizational boundaries. As an MBA, I am committed to making sure solutions are sustainable for the long term. My work as an executive director, funder and consultant in the corporate and nonprofit sectors has led to meaningful innovation and entrepreneurial practices. I bring my passion for teaching and keen ability to connect dots in unexpected ways to my work daily.”
Melissa is the founder and former executive director of the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. She joined the Smith School in 2006 after a decade of leading organizational growth for technology companies. Before launching the Center in 2009, Melissa led venture investment programs at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, creating the Social Venture Consulting program, a platform for students to apply their skills in designing scalable solutions for nonprofit and social enterprise organizations. At the Center for Social Value Creation, Melissa led strategic growth across co-curricular programs, curricula, research and career. In collaboration with the Provost’s office, Melissa led cross-campus initiatives to embed social entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in social entrepreneurship and sustainability. She also served as Assistant Dean for the Office of Global Initiatives. After relocating to North Carolina in 2016, Melissa was appointed Director of the Office of Social Innovation at UNC-Chapel Hill where she led development of cross campus strategic initiatives to grow impact entrepreneurship. She continues her work at UNC-Chapel Hill as professor of practice at the School of Public Policy. Melissa currently lives with her husband, three boys, and flat-coated retriever in Raleigh. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Ohio State University, and an MBA with honors from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Affiliate Partners
The impact of Radiate Works is amplified by our team of creative and passionate change leaders who bring diverse industry and functional expertise.
Radiate Works helps organizations solve complex challenges. Our unique combination of skills is honed from over 30 years of teaching, program development, and executive leadership in higher education, business and nonprofit sectors. Through deep exploration of assets and aspirations, Radiate Works helps our clients align mission, culture and innovation practice to reimagine impact.