Cynthia recently completed her PhD in Business Administration from the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business. She is on the academic job market in 2025-2026 for positions starting in Fall 2026.

Her current appointments include Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Senior Researcher and Associate with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Cynthia's passion is qualitative research that reveals the power and potential of collective action. She co-authored a book, The Systems Work of Social Change, with Dr. Francois Bonnici. The book was published by Oxford University Press in September 2021 and was recently awarded the Alliance for Nonprofit Management’s Terry McAdam Book Award for “Changing the Way We Think” in 2022.

Cynthia’s began her career in the corporate sector as a management consultant and later joined the LGT Impact Fellowship, which brought her to South Africa for over a decade. Cynthia has served in roles at several organizations, including program director for Generation Ubuntu, an afterschool program educating children in Cape Town; strategy consultant for mothers2mothers, an African social enterprise employing women to guide other women to good health; lead facilitator & curriculum designer for the DGMT Fellowship for Organisational Innovation, a program supporting emerging young civil society leaders in Cape Town, South Africa, and co-founder & CEO of the Starfish Greathearts Foundation USA, a fundraising entity supporting children and families in South Africa.

Cynthia also enjoys investing in small businesses that act as communities for people to achieve their personal potential. She and her sister, Erica Whalen, are the co-owners of The Yoga Common, which owns and operates yoga studios in New York City and Austin, both of which are home to vibrant communities of teachers, students and staff.

She holds a BA in English Literature from Georgetown University, an MBA from INSEAD, a PhD from the University of Cape Town. She currently lives in Houston, Texas.