KIMBERLIN D. BUTLER

OPENING KEYNOTE

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2022

Carl McNair - brother of beloved astronaut Ronald McNair - and Kimberlin Butler discuss the impact of being a Ronald McNair Scholar/Fellow. Recorded October 27, 2018

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Kimberlin Butler is an equity-focused, cross-sector bridge-builder with 20 years of experience in public education, public affairs, and philanthropy. She amplifies education investment strategies through evidence-informed grantmaking and catalyzes collaboration across the field of philanthropy. She partners with foundations to center racial equity in investments and founded Mathematica’s Equity Community of Practice. Ms. Butler leads Mathematica’s philanthropic practice to make progress on investments that prioritize educational and community outcomes. Her experience addressing urgent social challenges includes her tenure at Grantmakers for Education (GFE) where she worked with foundations across the country to improve outcomes, aligning P-16 (education, higher ed, and career) systems to create pathways for economic mobility and opportunity. Ms. Butler managed three national funder networks in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, community foundations, and corporate funders. She was instrumental in shaping the Grantmakers Institute, a Harvard Graduate School of Education program focused on investing in educational equity.

Ms. Butler also served in the Obama Administration and advised U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. on philanthropic alignment through the Office of Strategic Partnerships. As part of the White House Community Solutions team, she designed the Place- Based Initiatives Pilot strategy in the Office of Innovation and Improvement to advance collective impact and investments across urban, rural and tribal communities. She also launched the Atlanta office of Beyond 12, an organization that increases the number of low-income, first-generation, and historically underserved students who graduate from college, establishing partnerships with Achieve Atlanta and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

She served as director of strategic partnerships for StriveTogether, a national network supporting the success of 8.2 million students. She built national partnerships to advance six core outcomes, from kindergarten readiness to college degree completion, including a partnership with former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative. Ms. Butler managed the complex pooled Accelerator Fund and invested $15 million in communities that demonstrated accelerated progress.

She served The Zeist Foundation, a family foundation investing in children and youth through the arts, education, and health/human services. She expanded the foundation’s place-based investment strategy for improving Atlanta’s public schools and local nonprofit organizations. Eager to help improve the state of public education, Ms. Butler served as a middle school educator through Teach For America and an advisor to Georgia’s State Superintendent of Schools early in her career.

A native of Baton Rouge attending East Baton Rouge Parish Schools and graduating from Baton Rouge Magnet High, Ms. Butler received a B.A. in mass communication from Louisiana State University, an M.P.A. from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University with a concentration in educational policy, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) executive program in educational and organizational leadership.

She is an avid volunteer, having served on the boards of Education Pioneers, Urban League of Portland, the National Urban League, and the MRG Foundation. Ms. Butler is an active member of the Junior League of Washington, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Links, Inc. serving as Co-Chair of the National Philanthropy Committee, and Rotary Club International, formerly President of the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill Foundation. She was named an Outstanding Atlantan (joining the ranks of iconic leaders in the City's history), a Knowledge Universe Rising Star, and to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 List. She was selected among the DC region's most influential leaders as part of Leadership Greater Washington and leverages an extensive network as an alumna of LEAD Atlanta, Leadership Portland, and the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE) Connecting Leaders Fellowship Program.

*Subject to change. Please check back for updates.

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