The Wall Family Foundation gives $3 Million to USF’s School of Management

The gift advances USF’s commitment to entrepreneurship education and experiential learning at a time when its undergraduate entrepreneurship program is ranked no. 17 in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 Best Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Programs and its graduate entrepreneurship program is ranked no. 37 in the Princeton Review’s 2026 Top 50 Graduate Entrepreneurship Programs.

The institute will strengthen entrepreneurship programs by supporting faculty, expanding hands-on learning, and advancing curriculum development, research, and community engagement. Dr. Mark Cannice, a longtime entrepreneurship faculty member in the School of Management, will serve as the institute’s inaugural faculty director.

“This gift reaffirms the Wall family’s longstanding commitment to the University of San Francisco and our belief in the power of entrepreneurship education,” said Beth Wall Hanson ’82. “We are excited about the future of the School of Management and look forward to seeing how the institute amplifies its strengths, creates new opportunities for students, and advances entrepreneurship at USF.”

For USF President Salvador D. Aceves ’83, EdD ’95, the family’s philanthropy helps bring the university’s mission to life. “The Wall family’s generosity advances USF’s commitment to forming innovative, purpose-driven leaders who serve the common good,” he said.

The institute enhances decades of support from the Wall family and advances the vision of family patriarch Dr. C. Allen Wall, a retired cardiovascular surgeon who graduated from USF in 1947. In 2006, Wall established the Rev. P. Carlo Rossi, S.J., Endowed Entrepreneurial Chair in honor of his uncle, a Jesuit priest and award-winning USF language professor.

The family expanded its support in 2016 and 2023, when Wall’s daughter, Elizabeth Wall Hanson, joined him in supporting the School of Management. Their contributions helped sustain the Rossi endowment and an entrepreneurship faculty position.

The institute will develop this foundation as the School of Management prepares students to apply their entrepreneurial learning in real-world settings.

"The Wall family’s enduring generosity has helped make entrepreneurship and innovation a defining strength of the School of Management,” said School of Management Dean Otgo Erhemjamts. “With the establishment of the Rossi Institute, we will build on that legacy by strengthening and further differentiating our degree programs and expanding opportunities for experiential, practice-based learning.”

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