Myers-Lipton, Scott
Date Updated
12-8-2024
Department
Sociology
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
2023
Facebook or Website URL
Educational Background
University of Colorado, Boulder, Sociology, PhD 1994
San Francisco State University, Humanities, MA 1989
University of San Diego, Political Science, BA 1983
Teaching Experience
Professor, San Jose State University Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, June 2010-June 2023
Associate Professor, San Jose State University, Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, August 2003-May 2010
Assistant Professor, San Jose State University, Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, August 1999-July 2003
Administrative and Professional Experience
Received $200,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to manage the SJSU Social Action Internship Program, 2020-2022
Dr. Myers-Lipton serves as an Advisory Board Member of the SJSU Human Rights Institute. In addition, Dr. Myers-Lipton, along with Bobby Hackett from the Bonner Foundation, are leading an effort to mainstream social action in higher education. He lives with his wife in San José. In addition, Scott and his wife are the proprietors of the Sequoia Retreat Center, an event center dedicated to individual and social transformation.
Service
Along with his students, Dr. Myers-Lipton co-founded the successful effort to raise the minimum wage in San José from $8 to $10, and the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign, an initiative to develop 100,000 prevailing wage jobs for local and displaced workers after Hurricane Katrina. In total, his social action students have won 17 campaigns since 2006. In addition, Dr. Myers-Lipton has worked to help students develop solutions to poverty and inequality by taking them to live at homeless shelters, the Navajo and Lakota nations, the US Gulf Coast, and Kingston, Jamaica. Dr. Myers-Lipton is the recipient of the Manuel Vega Latino Empowerment Award, San José/Silicon Valley NAACP Social Justice Award, the Elbert Reed Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara County, the Change Maker Award from the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, the Teaching Effectiveness Award from the SJSU College of Social Sciences, and the SJSU Distinguished Service Award.
Selected Publications
Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton is the author of five books on social change, poverty, inequality, and public works. He was also the lead author of the Silicon Valley Pain Index from 2020-2024 and wrote a booklet entitled Racial and Social Justice at San José University.
Books
Myers-Lipton, Scott J. 2023. Change! A Student Guide to Social Action. Second edition. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/378/ https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/4008/
Myers-Lipton, Scott J. 2022. CHANGE! A Guide to Teaching Social Action. New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/365/
Myers-Lipton, Scott. 2017. CHANGE! A Student Guide to Social Action. New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/186/
Myers-Lipton, Scott J. 2014. Ending Extreme Inequality: An Economic Bill of Rights to Eliminate Poverty. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_books/105/
Myers-Lipton, Scott J. 2009. Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Scott Myers-Lipton. "USING SERVICE LEARNING TO CHANGE SOCIAL STRUCTURE: The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project" in S.C. Tannenbaum. Research, Advocacy, and Political Engagement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Through Service Learning (2008): 144-158. ebook published 2023 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003446798 https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/5044/
Myers-Lipton, Scott J. 2006. Social Solutions to Poverty : America’s Struggle to Build a Just Society. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Silicon Valley Pain Index https://www.sjsu.edu/hri/policy-projects/svpi/index.php
Buckner-Capone, Anji and Scott Myers-Lipton. "2024 Silicon Valley Pain Index" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2024). https://www.sjsu.edu/hri/docs/2024%20SVPI_Final.pdf
Scott Myers-Lipton and William Armaline. "2023 Silicon Valley Pain Index" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2023).https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/4007/
Scott Myers-Lipton and William Armaline. "2022 Silicon Valley Pain Index" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2022). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2521/
Scott Myers-Lipton and William Armaline. "2021 Silicon Valley Pain Index" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2021). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2522/
Scott Myers-Lipton. "2020 Silicon Valley Pain Index" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2020). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2523/
Reports
Scott Myers-Lipton and William Armaline. "Racial and Social Justice at San José State University: Students Respond with Social Action" SJSU Human Rights Institute (2021). https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/faculty_rsca/2520/
Video
Myers-Lipton, Scott, "University Scholar Series: Scott Myers-Lipton" (2010). University Scholar Series. 3. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/uss/3/
Files
Personal Commentary
In retirement, Dr. Myers-Lipton became the Director of Teaching Social Action. Social action occurs when everyday people band together to develop their power in order to change policy. Students in a social action course choose a campaign to work on and, as part of a team, attempt to enact a policy change on campus or in the community by making demands of a decision-maker during the semester the class is taught in. Teaching Social Action is building a movement to spread this pedagogy with a public purpose by training and building a community of practice among faculty and staff across the country and around the world.