Better Men Better World Search

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Scott Peterman knows first-hand the challenges of daily life in Philadelphia, but he also understands the possibilities when you provide youth an outlet for constructive activity, creativity, and critical thinking. Raised on the importance of civic engagement, Scott has continuously defied the assumption that one cannot take action early in life. Scott combines the mind of a visionary thinker with the resolve of community organizer. Beginning at the age of sixteen, Scott has designed and delivered a series of original initiatives that address critical youth issues through creative program models that bring together a spectrum of different voices to combat a specific problem, creating a shared sense of ownership and ultimately maximizing the available resources in order to generate solutions.

For the past three year’s Scott has served as the driving force for a local non-profit organization, iPRAXIS, where he has worked to accelerate the flow of knowledge, innovation and business between the people living in Philadelphia’s underserved communities and the city’s renowned academic research institutions and cutting-edge life science and technology companies. When he arrived, it would be fair to say that the organization was struggling and going through a transition from its founding director. At that time, Scott was the organization’s only full-time employee.

Through Scott’s vision & leadership, iPRAXIS’ science education initiative, iNSPIRE, has expanded its annual reach from 80 students in one school into 950 students in eight schools. Scott transformed iNSPIRE into a comprehensive model that offers fifteen different direct-service programs that engage students and expose them to local opportunities in the sciences. To support this growth, he has increased iPRAXIS’ pool of volunteer mentors from twenty to well over 150 professional scientists. Perhaps most important, Scott has helped improve iPRAXIS’ fiscal situation – even during these difficult economic times – and he has developed and executed a fundraising strategy to secure a diverse mix of foundation and corporate support.

Named as one of LaSalle University’s Non-Profit School 2010 Emerging Non-Profit Leaders, Scott has spoken on local and national stages about how to successfully design and deliver youth initiatives. In 2007, Scott was also named one of the inaugural recipients for the national 100 Projects for Peace Award in recognition for creating The Goal is Peace, a grassroots-level initiative promoting peace and inter-cultural dialogue in Philadelphia and the country of Uganda.