From the Board Chair: Welcome to our new President and CEO

Dear Community Progress friends,

Dr. Akilah Watkins-Butler

It is with great pleasure that I share with you that Akilah Watkins-Butler will be joining the Center for Community Progress as its new President and CEO in early July 2017.

Akilah comes to the organization with more than 20 years of experience working to develop successful and sustainable policies, practices, and programs that support and strengthen families and build strong communities. Akilah’s prior roles include CEO of Opportunity Institute, a consulting firm she founded that is dedicated to improving opportunities for America’s most vulnerable communities, families, and children.

Previously, she served as Associate Director at the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Director of National Partnerships at NeighborWorks America. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago for which she received a Ford Foundation doctoral fellowship. For more information on the experience that Akilah will bring to her new role, please see her full bio here.

The Board was deeply impressed by Akilah’s commitment to the work of Community Progress and to the communities we serve. We are looking forward to welcoming her to the organization.

At the same time we are excited to welcome Akilah to Community Progress, I want to thank Tamar Shapiro for her exceptional leadership of the organization since 2012.  We wish Tamar and her family well on their new adventure!

Sincerely,

Erika Poethig
Board Chair