person

Debra Meyerson

Debra Meyerson is a Consulting Professor at Stanford University Graduate School of Education (GSE). She was a founding faculty codirector of PACS from 2007-2010.

In September 2010 Debra suffered a severe stroke that forced her to take medical leave.  Prior to her stroke, she was Associate Professor at GSE and (by courtesy) the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB).  She taught courses at the GSE and GSB on organizing for diversity, the leadership of social change, and educational and social entrepreneurship.  Debra is the author of two books including Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work, and has published more than 50 articles and chapters in academic and popular publications. Tempered Radicals (HBS Press, 2001) examines processes by which people advance controversial changes from within organizations and leadership practices that foster grass-roots activism. 

Debra’s stroke initially robbed her of all speech and paralyzed the right side of her body.  While still working to recover more fully, in 2014 she began writing a new book, Identity Theft: Rebuilding Ourselves after Stroke (Andrews McMeel Publishing, expected May 2019.) Identity Theft draws on her own experience, and interviews with several dozen other survivors and their supporters, to explore the challenges of reshaping one’s identity and building a life of meaning after such a traumatic event and loss of capabilities. 

Debra is again a faculty research fellow at Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research and serves on the boards of Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) and Pacific Stroke Association. 

More info at: https://people.stanford.edu/debram/ and www.identitytheftbook.org.

Twitter: @identity_stroke