The Science of Making the World a Better Place: Featuring NewDay Speaker Scott Sherman, Executive Director of Transformative Action Institute

What are the most successful strategies for changing the world?

Scott Sherman was trained as an attorney, a business person, and a community organizer. Having experienced hardship in his youth, he wanted to improve social conditions. Yet many of the strategies that he learned seem to be ineffective. He saw many good-hearted people who were trying to make a difference in the world. But many of these people had become burnt out, exhausted, and frustrated. Their lives were unsustainable. Worst of all, they were losing.

Sherman decided to investigate the circumstances in which people were most likely to win — ways that people could make life better for themselves and their communities. His research looked at what separated people who succeeded from those who failed in numerous causes, including civil rights, public health, the environment, and economic development. In this talk, he will share some of the most surprising and important discoveries.

Over the last decade, Dr. Scott Sherman has taught courses on social innovation and social entrepreneurship at numerous universities, including Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins. His curricula and workshops have been used at more than 50 campuses across the United States from Tulane and Harvard to Stanford and UCLA. His programs have also been used in dozens of nations around the world from Europe to Latin America, and from Africa to Asia.

The NewDay Social Entrepreneurship Distinguished Speakers Series presents prominent leaders from across the field of social entrepreneurship to share their own experiences, challenges, insights, thoughts, and recommendations to students and the community.