2021 Neag School Outstanding Higher Education Professional
A professor of counselor education and school psychology at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Sylvester Kent Butler Jr. has been serving in higher education for more than two decades. A three-time UConn graduate, with two advanced degrees from the Neag School, Butler is now also part of the UCF president’s cabinet, overseeing the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as interim chief equity, inclusion, and diversity officer. His research — spanning such areas as African American student achievement and success as well as multicultural and social justice issues in counseling — has been widely presented and published in books and journals at the national and international levels. Among his many accolades, Butler has been recognized by UCF as a Faculty Fellow for Inclusive Excellence, received the Tennessee Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development Appreciation Award, and named an American Counseling Association Fellow. Known as an accessible and engaged faculty member, he also has demonstrated his leadership in two large counseling professional organizations, including the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, for which he has served as president. His most proud leadership role includes being elected the 70th president, and second-ever African American male to serve, of the American Counseling Association.
“Kent is highly respected by students, as well as faculty and staff he has worked with across campus, the state and nation. He is loyal and committed to his students, his programs and to the institutions he has served.”
— David T. Ouimette,
Executive Director, UConn First Year Programs,
Learning Communities, and the Academic Achievement Center
