Vippy Yee

Vippy Yee is the Assistant Dean for Community Based Programs. She holds a BA in Political Science from Dickinson College and an MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science at the University of London.

As the Center’s Assistant Dean for Community Based Programs, Vippy is responsible for encouraging and supporting MIT student community engagement, managing immersive community-based programs, helping faculty develop community engaged learning courses/projects, and developing strategy for public interest advising and other PKG initiatives, with a focus on local and national projects. She develops and maintains relationships with community organizations to foster ethical and effective student engagement and serves as an instructor for PKG Center courses. Vippy’s higher education career includes over 15 years of teaching with a focus on racial and social inequality, social mobility, and social movements. Her current and past courses include Social Justice Pathways at MIT and Beyond, Social Problems, Urban Sociology, Sociology of Gender, and the Foundations of Civic and Community Engagement.

Vippy draws upon over two decades of civic leadership and service. Prior to her current role at MIT, Vippy was the founding Director of the Center for Social Impact at Penn State Brandywine and served as the Assistant Director of Volunteer Programs at Bryn Mawr College. She has held elected positions in local government on the Rose Valley Borough Council and Wallingford-Swarthmore School District Board, and she has served on the Board of Directors of various non-profit and community agencies including the Lansdowne Economic Development Corporation, Chester Children’s Chorus, and the Helen Kate Furness Library. Through the PKG Center, she strives to help prepare students to become engaged leaders in their communities by providing the context, training and opportunities to develop meaningful connections based on mutual respect and dignity.