Rebecca Riccio’s teaching and research centers the use of experiential learning to cultivate systems thinking, ethical reasoning, and self-authorship among students who aspire to engage in social change. Her teaching models were featured in Ashoka U’s most recent publications on social innovation education, Evaluating Changemaker Education: A Practitioner’s Guide and Preparing Students For a Rapidly Changing World. She is deeply engaged with promoting ethical community-engaged teaching, learning, and research across campus as a member of the Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Racial Justice Initiative leadership team, a Faculty Fellow in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, an Ashoka U Change Leader, the faculty advisor to the Northeastern Honors Program social activism learning living community, and a member of the NUPD Advisory Board.
She has been a Service-Learning Fellow and a Faculty Scholar in the Center for Advancing Teaching, Learning, and Research and is a longtime faculty advisor to the Learning by Giving Foundation, a member of the Millennium Campus Network’s Global Education Council, and an adult ally, mentor, and advisor to youth leaders in March for Our Lives, Sunrise Movement Boston, US Youth Climate Strike, and Earth Day Boston 2020. Prior to joining Northeastern in 2008, Rebecca managed international development projects around the world at the Council on International Educational Exchange and SATELLIFE and ran her own nonprofit consulting practice.
