Facilitator
Dr. Shakti Butler: Educator, Filmmaker, Speaker, Social Justice Activist, and Healer
• Creative and visionary bridge builder who has challenged and inspired learning for over two decades
• Producer and director of “The Way Home,” “Light in the Shadows”, “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible”, and “Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity”
• Executive Director, World Trust Educational Services
• Launched HEART-TO-HEART Conversations, a national program of public dialogue designed to help people to learn together and share deep feelings about race and culture
• Uses her ability to listen deeply while asking critical questions that support self-directed learning in others
• Her speaking and teaching styles enrich people’s abilities to move toward expanded capacities for building community
About Dr. Shakti Butler:
Dr. Shakti Butler is a multiracial African-American woman (African, Arawak Indian, and Russian-Jewish) whose work as a creative and visionary bridge builder has challenged and inspired learning for over two decades. Butler is the producer and director of the groundbreaking documentaries, “The Way Home” and “Light in the Shadows.” Her newest film, “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible,” features the experiences of white women and men who have worked to gain insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white supremacy in the United States. Butler’s films serve as catalysts for dialogue and set the context for constructive conversations on oppression through the lens of race. Butler’s work moves conversations beyond black and white and speaks to the interconnectedness of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia.
In 1994, as executive director of World Trust Educational Services, Dr. Butler designed and launched HEART-TO-HEART CONVERSATIONS, a national program of public dialogue designed to help people to learn together and share deep feelings about race and culture. This program has gained recognition and been reviewed on both local and national television. Butler is an inspirational facilitator, trainer and lecturer. Her work emerges from years of self-exploration, commitment to social justice and experience as a learner, lecturer and public speaker. Dr. Butler’s services are sought after by colleges, universities, public and private organizations, religious and spiritual institutions and corporations. A warm and compassionate person, Butler uses her ability to listen deeply while asking critical questions that support self-directed learning in others. Her speaking and teaching styles enrich people’s abilities to move toward expanded capacities for building community. Group dialogue, self-inquiry, reflection and whole body learning by participants are some of the strategies she employs.
In addition, her videos and conversation programs stimulate the kind of new questions, which enhance any efforts towards deep learning and change. Dr. Butler received her doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies in the School of Transformative Learning and Change. She holds an MA in Guidance and Counseling from Bank Street College of New York and graduated magna cum laude from City College of New York. She is also a contributing author to The New Entrepreneurs, an anthology on new paradigm business practices and learning.