REV. SHERISSE M. BUTLER

Founder/Executive Director
AJ Butler Northeast Detroit Community Action Coalition

Sherisse M. Butler is a change-catalyst, community activist, child defender and education advocate. Detroit raised. Detroit educated. A proud graduate of Martin Luther King, Jr. Sr. High School. Having pursued undergraduate and graduate degrees at Barnard College, Teachers College, Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in New York City, Sherisse has worked in the K-12 and post-secondary education communities for over 15 years. She strongly believes that education is the pathway to freedom.

Upon returning to Detroit in 2015, Sherisse became involved in the local community following in the steps of her late grandmother Annie. Volunteering for local education initiatives, school board campaigns, voter registrations initiatives, and becoming a precinct delegate are just a few ways that Sherisse gives back to Detroit. Most proudly, Sherisse utilizes her strengths and talents to advocate for the needs of children in Detroit. Whether it is her service as the Senior Director of Government & Community Affairs for Detroit Public Schools Community District, Youth Pastor of St. Paul AME Church, or serving on the Board of Directors for Teen HYPE Youth Development, Sherisse’s mission is to give voice to the most vulnerable children in our community, kick in the doors of opportunity, and to build a table, bring a chair and/or microphone to the spaces where decisions are made about young people. She believes the children are our now and our later, and that it is our responsibility to ensure that youth voice is elevated.

Most recently, Sherisse founded the AJ Butler Northeast Detroit Community Action Coalition in honor of her late grandmother, Annie J. Butler. The organization's mission is to promote a healthy living environment and to fight for an improved and equitable quality of living for Northeast Detroit residents.

Sherisse lives by the words of George Bernard Shaw, “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations.” It is her privilege to serve.