Merritt Faria, Jennifer
Jennifer Merritt Faria is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, where she teaches Managing Human Dynamics in Organizations. Her work focuses on corporate social responsibility for integral ecology, an approach that treats environmental, social, and economic concerns as interconnected, and on values-centered decision-making in organizational leadership.
In 2026, her co-authored work “Corporate Social Responsibility for Integral Ecology: A Pedagogical Approach” received the Henri de Laulanie, S.J. Prize from the Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability at Loyola Marymount University and the Laudato Si’ Research Institute at the University of Oxford. Her research on community-engaged learning and social justice education has appeared in journals including Religion and Education and the American Journal of Community Psychology.
Faria joined Santa Clara in 2014 as Director of Community-based Learning at the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, where she led programs placing 1,200 students a year with more than 50 community partners and directed Thriving Neighbors, a partnership with San Jose’s Greater Washington neighborhood. She later served as Senior Director of Academics at the Miller Center for Global Impact, leading a fellowship program focused on climate resilience and women’s economic power.
Previously, she held faculty and leadership roles at the University of Virginia and at John Carroll University, where she founded the Carroll-Cleveland Philosophers’ Program, honored by the American Philosophical Association. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology of education from the University of Virginia, a master of management from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, an M.A. in pastoral ministry from Santa Clara University, and a B.A. in political science from Vanderbilt University.
MGMT - 160: Managing Human Dynamics in Organizations