Erik Payne Butler
Erik Payne Butler
President
Human Investment Institute LLC.
Dr. Erik Payne Butler is Founder and president of Human Investment Institute LLC, a consulting firm that works with workforce development and education organizations in the U.S. and abroad. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Child Labor Committee, served as Chair of the National Youth Employment Coalition, and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of “More Than Words,” a juvenile offender and foster care transition program in Massachusetts.
Dr. Butler is a specialist in strategic planning, program design, results-driven management, and the leadership role of program directors and non-profit executives, bringing both theory and extensive practical experience to the task. He has developed an extensive U.S. and international network of successful practices, effective managers, and innovative approaches to improved performance and to funding and sustainability for important but often hard-to-fund local services.
In particular, Butler has focused on youth development, education, and workforce programs for over thirty five years, as both a practitioner and policymaker. He worked first as a local program manager in Boston, then as Executive Director of the White House Task Force on Youth Employment for President Jimmy Carter. As Human Services Management Professor at Brandeis University , he also founded and ran the Center for Human Resources (now the Center for Youth and Communities). He was president of Bay State Skills Corporation (now called the Commonwealth Corporation), a Massachusetts “think tank” and program developer. In the last several years, he has also led projects in youth workforce development in Cambodia, South Africa, the Republic of Georgia, and Kosovo, and – most recently -- Rwanda.
Since developing Human Investment Institute in 1999, he has worked extensively with human service programs and agencies nationwide, ranging from tribal and native organizations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Colorado, to urban programs in Boston, El Paso, Memphis, Hartford, New York City, Portland, Philadelphia, Denver, and Detroit. Most recently, he has been senior consultant to the U.S. Department of Labor for youth development programs – ranging from the 36-site Youth Opportunity to the 28-site Youth Offender Demonstration Program and other programs of the USDOL Youth Office’s “youth offender portfolio.” This has including providing counsel and assistance to the 25-site Urban Youth Empowerment Program of the National Urban League and to USDOL for the School-Based Strategies Initiative for reduction of violence and gang activity in schools. Since 2004 he has worked with the five-site EmPLOY initiative for transitioning foster care youth, working with Casey Family Programs, a Seattle-based foundation, as their advisor for employment, and as lead technical assistant in Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Chicago and New York City.
Erik has bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in history, government, education, and social policy from Harvard University.
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