Johnnella E. Butler, Professor Emerita, Comparative Women’s Studies, Spelman College, served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Spelman from 2005-2014, and taught from 2016 until retirement in 2020. Prior to Spelman, Dr. Butler held appointments at the University of Washington, Seattle as Professor of American Ethnic Studies with appointments in English and Women’s Studies, and Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost of the Graduate School. At the UW she prepared 25 Ph.D. students in African American and American Ethnic literary studies.
Prior to the UW, Dr. Butler held faculty and administrative positions at Towson State and at Smith College where she became the first Black woman tenured. Dr. Butler has been awarded major faculty and curriculum development grants—totaling $2.1 M—from major foundations and the U.S. government—addressing the liberal arts curriculum; diversity and American Studies; U.S. pluralism, interdisciplinarity and liberal education. Her scholarship spans pedagogy; Ethnic Studies and African American literary theory, focusing on identity, experience and interdisciplinarity; and relationships among democracy and diversity in liberal education; and institutional change. She has delivered numerous addresses and conducted over 80 workshops at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. on interdisciplinarity and inclusivity, and has lectured abroad in France, England, and Spain. September 2020, Dr. Butler keynoted the Association for General and Liberal Studies annual conference, and in 2021 was a presenter for the first international ELA, Shiv Nadar University (remote).
A pioneer in African American and American Ethnic studies, Dr. Butler conceptualized and edited the Ford Foundation-funded Color-Line to Borderlands: The Matrix of American Ethnic Studies, University of Washington Press, 2001. Her most recent publications are “Disentangling Diversity’s Web of Ambiguity and Conflicts: A Beginning.” In Research and Occasional Papers Special Thematic Issue: Reflections on the Challenges of Representation and Academic Freedom, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, October 2023. New! ROPS Special Thematic Issue: October 2023 (mailchi.mp) and “Teaching After the Insurrection: Belonging and Othering in the Classroom” in Liberal Education (AAC&U Summer/Fall 2021). She wrote the “Afterword” for the ELA book, Career journeys of Diverse Leaders in Higher Education: Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain, Routledge, June 2024.
She is lead editor and contributor for the forthcoming ELA book, Leadership for Institutional and Student Success Amid Challenge and Change.
Among her awards and honors are the UW Liberal Arts Professorship and Dean’s Recognition Award, the Ethnic Studies Student Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the UW Multicultural Alumni Partnership Distinguished Community Service Award. The Council of Graduate School awarded the Peterson Award for Promoting an Inclusive Graduate Community to the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program that Dr. Butler developed. A recipient of the National Association for Ethnic Studies Lifetime Achievement Award, she was recognized with the Association for Program Administrators in STEM’s Educational Visionary Award. A two-term member of the Board of Directors of the Association for American Colleges and Universities, Dr. Butler, an ELA Founding Fellow, has served as a faculty member of the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education’s Executive Leadership Academy since 2012, and is proud to be an affiliate faculty member of the Center. In May 2024, her alma mater, College of Our Lady of the Elms, awarded her an honorary doctorate in the humanities for her work in higher education on identity, diversity, interdisciplinarity, and civic engagement. In April 2025, she was interviewed by The History Makers.
