Brittany Butler is the founding Executive Director of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative (SICI) and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Her teaching and writing focus on purpose-driven leadership and effective strategies for initiating and implementing system-level change. She equips students and practitioners with practical tools, research-informed insights, and real-world examples to help them build personalized strategies for delivering on the results they care most about.
Brittany played a leading role in designing SICI’s accelerator for students across Harvard schools, where she teaches and coaches emerging innovators at the helm of early- and growth-stage social impact efforts. She co-authored the organizing framework that guides the accelerator, which is now used by other programs and accelerators across Harvard and beyond. She is also a faculty member in the Management, Leadership, and Decision-Making Unit, where she teaches Effective Implementation in the degree program and co-chairs the Leadership for Social Impact executive education program. She has extensive experience teaching in senior executive programs for leaders across government, business, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector.
Prior to her time at Harvard, Brittany was the founding executive director of two high-impact organizations—one focused on collective action for mental health in post-Katrina New Orleans, and the other on improving approaches to child development in K–12 schools across the United States. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and industry outlets like Stanford Social Innovation Review, presented her work at the White House, and co-authored book chapters on frameworks for social impact leadership.
Known for creating mission-aligned work cultures that nurture individual and community growth, she is dedicated to developing the next generation of social impact leaders.