Kelly Butler

Kelly Butler was the Chief Executive Officer of the Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) until 2023 when the Institute closed its doors having met its mission to lift Mississippi off the bottom in early literacy. BRI’s literacy work encompassed early childhood and parenting for school readiness, professional development for PK-3 teachers and literacy coaches, improving teacher preparation for early literacy instruction, and developing literacy leaders.

Kelly spearheaded BRI’s development of the original Reading Universe, a detailed scope and sequence for training teachers on how to deliver sequential, systemic, explicit reading instruction. Those materials are the foundation for the media-rich service on WETA’s ReadingUniverse.org. Kelly is the author of two statewide studies and developed a subsequent statewide initiative to improve teacher preparation programs focused on early literacy instruction in Mississippi’s 15 public and private universities. During her tenure at BRI, Kelly initiated a weekly discussion group between practitioners and researchers that continues to enjoy participation from more than two dozen states.

A former high school teacher in the Greenwich, Connecticut Public Schools, Kelly holds a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education from The University of Alabama and a Master’s degree in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. She served by appointment to the Governor’s Task Force on Teacher Preparation for Early Literacy Instruction, the Mississippi Reading Panel, and the Governor’s Task Force on Educator Workforce Development. She is a founding member of the Higher Education Literacy Council of Mississippi and the Affinity Group of Mississippi Education Grantmakers, a former member of the Advisory Board for the Southeast Regional Educational Lab (SE/REL), and current board member of Springboard to Opportunity, Deans for Impact, and the national advisory board member for First Book. Kelly has leveraged the Institute’s successful track record to initiate several multi-organization and multi-state initiatives, including The Big Dippers Short Course in the Science of Reading for Teach For America’s National Institute, A Path Forward: Bringing the Science of Reading to Teacher Preparation and Licensure, and a 20-member national team of reading experts to review the teacher preparation programs in a neighboring state. Kelly lives in Jackson with her husband, Thorne. They have five daughters.