New Haven, CT. – The Center for Policing Equity (CPE) today announced Dirk A. Butler has joined the research and action organization as its President and Chief Operating Officer.
In this newly created role, Butler will develop and manage the organization’s strategic vision, aligning its short- and long-term goals with its mission to reduce the causes of racial disparities in law enforcement. Butler will also lead CPE’s executive leadership team and oversee its programming, including community engagement, external relations and fundraising.
“We are thrilled to have Dirk join CPE during this period of tremendous growth and change for the future of public safety,” said Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, Center for Policing Equity Co-founder and CEO and Professor of African American Studies and Psychology at Yale University. “I know Dirk’s leadership and guidance will help navigate us as we expand as an organization and work with law enforcement and partners to reimagine and build public safety systems of trust in communities nationwide.”
Butler has more than 20 years of strategic management and leadership experience within the public and private sectors, building successful and sustainable programs and policies for children, families, and communities throughout his illustrious career. Butler joins CPE from the United Way, National Capital Area where, as Vice President of Community Engagement and Impact, he developed the organization’s overarching strategic vision and oversaw the management of programming.
Prior to that, Butler held a senior role at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and served as a senior policy director in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration. Earlier in his career, Butler and his wife founded The Opportunity Institute, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm that served as a conduit between academic research institutions and vulnerable communities.
“I am honored to join CPE as its first President and COO,” Butler said. “I have dedicated my life to advancing societal equality and easing the disparities that impact our nation’s most vulnerable communities. I look forward to working with my new colleagues on evidence-based approaches that build equitable systems of safety that align with these values.”
Butler is completing a Ph.D. in Social Service Administration and Research from the University of Chicago this spring. He received his Master of Social Work degree from Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, and his bachelor’s degree from Hunter’s College, CUNY, in New York. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three children.