Debra Meyerson conducts research in five areas: a) gender and race relations in organizations, specifically individual and organizational tactics of change aimed at removing inequities and fostering productive inter-group relations; b) the role of philanthropic organizations and other intermediaries in fostering and diffusing change within institutions; c) leadership of innovation and change in educational institutions; d) the scaling of social innovations and the role of funding institutions in enabling and promoting “scale”; and e) the construction (and destruction) of work-life boundaries through the uses and interpretations of communication technologies.

Debra Meyerson is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford University’s School of Education and (by courtesy) Graduate School of Business, and codirector of Stanford’s Center for Research in Philanthropy and Civil Society.

Professor Meyerson’s research focuses on conditions and change strategies that foster constructive and equitable gender and race relations in organizations. In her more recent projects she is investigating 1) the role of philanthropic institutions in promoting and diffusing local initiatives aimed at promoting gender and racial equity in organizations; 2) the rationale, politics, and consequences of scaling in the charter school field; and 3) the blurring of work-life boundaries through the use of communication technologies.


Meyerson currently teaches courses at the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business on organizing for diversity, the leadership of social change, and social change processes and organizations. She has given workshops on her research to organizations in the profit, not-for-profit, and public sectors throughout the world. She is author of the book, Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work (2001) and over forty articles and chapters in academic and mainstream publications. Her work has been featured in national media including the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Business Week, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, and others. She has been repeatedly named by the San Francisco Business Journal as one of the Bay Area’s most influential women in business and was recently honored by the National Organization for Women as “Educator of the Year.” She serves as a board of director of Envision Schools, a charter management organization based in San Francisco.

Meyerson received her BS and MS from MIT and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University.