Dr. Yolanda J. Butler
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
2025 fellow
Dr. Yolanda J. Butler has 28 years of experience and leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As a White House Leadership Development Fellow, she is the Equity Advisor with the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Performance and Personnel Management. Dr. Butler works in the Federal Equity and Engagement Customer Experience unit.
Most recently, Dr. Butler worked as a Program Manager on matters of health equity with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health and who serves as the director of the HHS Office of Minority Health. She also serves as a Senior Advisor at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) as a human services policy expert, and in operations for a $1.7 billion block grant. Dr. Butler has a history of senior-level responsibility and represents the agency on councils and working groups addressing the causes and conditions of poverty.
Preceding her advisor role, Dr. Butler served 13 years as a Deputy Director, with three years as an Acting Director. She directed presidential-level programs including as the HHS lead of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative with the US Departments of Treasury and Agriculture. She also steered the Compassion Capital Fund to build capacity in faith-based organizations to administer community-led social services aid.
As she pursued her doctoral degree between 2000 and 2006, Dr. Butler taught the “National Government of the U.S.” course at Howard University. She also worked in the ACF legislation and budget office. Prior to that, Dr. Butler worked at the U.S. Department of State while completing her master’s program at Howard. She was named a 1996 Presidential Management Fellow at graduation. Dr. Butler holds a certificate from the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University (2008) in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor’s degree from Jackson State University (1994) in Jackson, Miss.
Dr. Butler loves mentoring emerging leaders and is the executive sponsor to her agency’s Women in Leadership Employee Resource Group. She enjoys reading, traveling, live performances, and cooking, with a particular fondness for recreating her grandmother’s famous dishes and cakes to relative success, according to family and friends. Dr. Butler is the proud bonus mother to two college students and a 3-year-old feline daughter. She resides in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area.
