Oberlin Center for Impact Finance

Mission

The OCIF provides opportunities to 

• Collaborate and learn with renowned practitioners, and
• Develop and contribute to cutting-edge research in impact finance grounded in unbiased scholarship and intellectual rigor
• Equips students with a holistic understanding of how financial decision-making and financial institutional design can contribute to inclusive and sustainable systems, and support broader reforms in policy and practice.

We prioritize collaboration and meaningful partnerships among students, faculty, and practitioners on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, as well as financial-market-supported efforts on poverty reduction, financial inclusion, and climate resilience.

Alumni Practitioners

Jesse Gerstin ’07

Jesse Gerstin is Vice President at Inclusiv, where he leads green finance training for more than 500 community lenders in the United States and the Caribbean. With over 15 years of experience in climate finance and clean energy, Jesse has advanced renewable energy access across the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia through roles at the Clinton Foundation and SimpliPhi Power. He also teaches sustainable accounting and impact finance at Bard College’s MBA in Sustainability and is an active angel investor supporting social entrepreneurs. Jesse holds degrees from Oberlin College, the University of London, and Bard College’s MBA in sustainability.

Bruno Bertocci ’76

Bruno Bertocci is retired and serves as chair of the CFA Institute ESG Technical Committee. He is the former head of Global Sustainability in Active Equities at UBS Asset Management, where he developed the team’s positive screening process. Earlier, he managed global equity investments at Stein Roe & Farnham and Rockefeller & Co. He represented UBS on the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s advisory group, the US Social Investment Forum, and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. He was also a member of the UBS Sustainability Council. Bruno earned an AB at Oberlin College and an MBA at Harvard Business School.

Heather Henyon ’95

Heather Henyon is Founding Partner of Mindshift Capital, a global venture fund investing exclusively in early-stage, women-led technology companies. She has over 200 investments across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and is founder of the Women’s Angel Investor Network (WAIN), the first and largest women’s angel group in the Middle East. Heather began her career on Wall Street and later became founding CEO of Grameen-Jameel Microfinance. She serves on multiple investment committees and corporate boards, with a focus on women’s health and emerging markets. Heather earned a BA at Oberlin College and an MBA at Cornell University.

Mark Pinsky ’79

Mark Pinsky is President and Founder of CDFI Friendly America. For 21 years, he served as President & CEO of Opportunity Finance Network, helping scale and strengthen the CDFI industry. With more than 35 years of leadership in community finance, he has been central to developing policies and resources that expand access to capital for underserved communities. A committed volunteer, he serves as Treasurer and Board Member of Reconstructing Judaism. An English major at Oberlin College, Mark began his career in clean energy policy and later worked for Congressman Ted Weiss. He remains a leading voice in community finance today.

Faculty & Staff

M. Udara Peiris

Academic Director, Associate Professor of Financial Economics

Udara Peiris joined Oberlin in the fall of 2022. He was previously a tenured associate professor of finance at the International College of Economics and Finance at HSE University in Russia and has taught at the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford. He is a visiting researcher at the National Bank of Slovakia, was a research advisor to the Central Bank of Russia, consulted the Government of Sri Lanka, and presented his research at institutions including the International Monetary Fund, Federal Reserve System, European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Reserve Bank of Australia.

His research has a strong policy focus and covers the nexus between the macroeconomy and the financial markets. He has published over a dozen articles in major journals in finance, economic policy, and economic theory. He was engaged with the financial crisis in Sri Lanka as a Global Academic Fellow at Verite Research, Sri Lanka.

Udara is the faculty advisor for the Oberlin Finance Club, serves as Faculty Advisor on the college’s Impact Investment Advisory Group, and Academic Director of the Oberlin Center for Impact Finance.

Iman Abdullah ’24

Manager, Impact Investment Programs

As the Coordinator of the Oberlin Impact Investment Advisory Group (IIAG), Iman supervises the Student Impact Investment Fellows and is the IIAG’s liaison to the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees. Driven by the will to use financial capital to drive sustainable solutions, she served as an Impact Investment Fellow for two years while she was a student at Oberlin.

Iman helped to pool resources to launch the Oberlin Center for Impact Finance. She designs and manages programming at the center.