Scott's BiographyA lifelong resident of Hamden, Scott grew up in Whitneyville and lives with his family in the Ridge Hill neighborhood.
Scott attended Hamden Public Schools, including Putnam Avenue School, Ridge Hill School, Hamden Middle School, and Hamden High School. During his academic career, he served on the National Honor Society as well as a four-year member of the Hamden High School football team. He was selected by his peers as Vice-President of his class and Captain of the Boys Track team.
Upon graduation from the local public schools, Scott attended Cornell University, where he majored in Government. In addition to his role of Secretary of the Cornell Civil Liberties Union and on the editorial staff of the Cornell Political Forum, he was also awarded a Mellon Foundation Fellowship to study municipal government at Yale University. A the end of his collegiate career, Scott was awarded one of two Minority Student Achievement Awards for the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences.
In 1993, Scott was hired by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman to join his State Office staff in Hartford, Connecticut. In addition to citizen outreach and casework duties, Scott Served as Systems Administrator for the office, coordinating preparations for potential Year 2000 (Y2K) data challenges. Scott also served as Site Manager for the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) during the 1996 Presidential Debate in Hartford, supervising access to the site and as liaison between CPD and the host facility.
In 2001, Scott accepted a position as Project Manager and Technical Director for the Connecticut Policy and Economic Council, a non-profit dedicated to improving the delivery of government services. During this time, Scott led the development and rollout of CivicRADAR, an online citizen relationship management tool. In 2003, Scott returned to Senator Lieberman's Office to serve as Deputy State Director for Constituent Service and, at the same time, served on the Town of Hamden's Community Development Advisory Commission.
In 2004, Scott was appointed by Hamden Mayor Carl Amento to manage the Town's Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development, the agency charged with overseeing the Community Development Block Grant. In 2005, he was appointed by Mayor Craig Henrici as Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Hamden. In 2009, Scott was elected Mayor of the Town of Hamden, the youngest Mayor in the Town's history.
As Mayor, Scott has led the charge to make Hamden the most energy-efficient municipality in the State of Connecticut. He has also been one of the State's leading voices on regional and collaborative problem-solving, which has led to Board of Director's positions for a number of regional entities, including Workforce Alliance, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, and REX Development (previously Regional Growth Partnership). Based on his background and experience, Scott has also been asked to serve on the Transition Team for Governor Dannel Malloy, the State Technical High School Review Panel, and the STORM Irene panel organized to review and improve statewide emergency response to natural disasters.
Scott is married to Mandi Isaacs Jackson, a labor researcher and author of the Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Award-winning book Model City Blues: Urban Space and Organized Resistance in New Haven and contributor to the Encyclopedia of Social Movements. They have two sons, Maxwell (who attends Ridge Hill School) and Elijah (born in 2008).
E-mail: scott@jacksonforhamden.com