Black History Month Conversation Series:
Remembering our past. Focused on our future.
In celebration of Black History Month, each Thursday in February, the UNC School of Education’s Dana Griffin — Dean’s Fellow for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — will host leaders in counseling education and psychology for hour-long, online discussions focused on the role of schools of education in uplifting and elevating Black youth, families, and communities. Join us on Thursdays at 11 a.m. EST to participate in the discussion.
About the Speaker
S. Kent Butler
Professor, University of Central Florida
President-Elect, American Counseling Association
Kent Butler Jr. holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with a concentration in Counseling Psychology, from the University of Connecticut. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and Nationally Certified School Counselor (NCSC). In February of 2020, Butler was elected President-Elect of the American Counseling Association (ACA). His presidential year is 2021 – 2022. In July of 2019, Butler was appointed Interim Chief Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Officer at the University of Central Florida. In March of 2020, he was selected as a Fellow within the National Association of Chief Diversity Officer in Higher Education’s Chief Diversity Officer Fellows Program (NADOHE-CDOFP). He is a 2020-2021 cohort (C-7) member. The professional leadership program mentors new and early career Chief Diversity Officers. Butler was also recently promoted to Professor of Counselor Education at the University of Central Florida and has served as a Faculty Fellow for Inclusive Excellence within the Office of the Provost.
Butler presently serves as faculty advisor to CHI SIGMA IOTA International Honor Society (CSI), the Counselor Education Doctoral Student Organization (CEDSO), Project for Haiti Knights, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He served as the Principal Investigator, for The High-Risk Delinquent and Dependent Child Educational Research Project: Situational Environmental Circumstances Mentoring Program (SEC), which was a partnership between the University of Central Florida and several Florida universities. This grant opportunity has transitioned into the UCF Young Knights Mentoring Project a program that supports students at Hungerford Elementary School in Eatonville, FL.
Also on the national level, Butler has served the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) as the 2011-2012 President and ACA Governing Council Representative (2015-2018). He is honored to be a member of AMCD’s Multicultural Counseling Competencies Revisions Committee (2014-2015) which produced the ACA-AMCD endorsed Multicultural Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC). In April of 2016, Butler was bestowed with the prestigious ACA Fellow Award. His research and academic interests lie in the areas of Multicultural and International Counseling, Social Justice, Mentoring, Counseling work as it relates specifically to African American males, Group Counseling, School Counseling, and Multicultural Supervision.