Judy Butler is the owner and lead consultant for Dragonfly Enterprises.

Judy Butler is an educator with more than 40 years experience including teaching at the elementary, middle, and high level in public schools and twelve years as student teacher coordinator for Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.

Prior to forming her educational consulting company, Dragonfly Enterprises, Ms. Butler spent eleven years as an administrator in Williamson County Schools, first as the Gifted Education Coordinator and then as Curriculum Director. As the Curriculum Director, she was responsible for countywide professional development and curriculum alignment for all kindergarten through the twelfth grade content areas. Ms. Butler served on the Tennessee State Department of Education Staff Development Taskforce for two years where she led workshops across the state as part of a teacher quality enhancement program.

In Williamson County Schools, Ms. Butler raised over $750,000 in grant funds to improve the teaching of history, integrate science into the other subject areas, make connections to the arts, and infuse technology into the curriculum. The common thread of all of these projects was the emphasis on problem-based learning and the use of inquiry strategies. As the principal investigator for these grant-funded activities, she was responsible for intensive evaluation of the changes in classroom practice.

Ms. Butler is the lead consultant for Dragonfly Enterprises. As part of her consulting activities, she and Susan Kuner act as the external evaluation team for four Tennessee Teaching American History (TAH) grants sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Honored locally and nationally for her work in conservation education Ms. Butler was given the Tennessee Educator of the Year award from the Tennessee Conservation League and Administrator of the Year from the Tennessee Environment Education Association. The Global Rivers Environmental and Educational Network recognized her with an international award for leadership. See the activities for the Aquarius Project.

As part of her consulting activities she serves as the Director of Education and Public Outreach for the Center of Excellence Information Systems at Tennessee State University. Some of her responsibilities at TSU includes:

1) Working with Dr. Todd Gary on teacher professional development projects that include Biotechnology, Astrobiology, Aeronautics, and other areas of Earth and Space Science. See the website for the Institute for Understanding Biological Systems

2) Coordinator for Curriculum and The Teacher Professional Development Program for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This program is part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute Lead Team at NASA Goddard. Project Title: Astrobiology Curriculum Development Project for NASA Goddard Center for Astrobiology--Origin and Evolution of Organics in Planetary Systems. See the ASC project with NASA Goddard.

3) Project manager for the Minority Institution Astrobiology Collaborative (MIAC).

4) Ms. Butler recently coordinated the development of the Newspaper In Education project to introduce students to the field of astrobiology. She loves drawing and keeping detailed journals about her experiences as she does workshops and projects in science education. See her art work.

Judy Butler at a posters session presentation at the NASA Astrobiology Institute Annual Meeting in Phoenix Arizona 2003.

Dr. Baruch Blumberg and Judy Butler at an Astrobiology Conference in February 2003. Dr. Blumberg won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering the Hepatitis B virus in 1976 and was the first director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

Teacher Professional Development

Ms. Butler works with school systems locally and nationally to provide workshops on specific topics such as differentiated instruction, technology integration, and writing for the following school districtsWilliamson County Schools, Cumberland County Public Schools TN, Loudoun County Public Schools VA, Chesterfield County Schools VA and Florence County School District SC.

See links under teacher resources to differentiated instruction in Williamson County Schools (Tennessee), Florence County School District No. 3 (South Carolina), and Loudoun County School (Virginia). Also see the teacher resources section for the writing workshops at Stone Elementary School (Tennessee). Check out the resources for the workshops at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum for Loudoun County Schools in Virginia.

	The photograph to the left shows Mrs. Butler looking through a telescope at Dyer Observatory during an astrobiology workshop jointly sponsored by TSU and Vanderbilt University. This was one of over 30 teacher workshops and presentations that she and Dr. Todd Gary have conducted with the theme of astrobiology during the last two years for Tennessee State University. (2002-2004)

Ms. Butler is part of the following community committees:

Education Advisory Committee Member, Cheekwood Museum and Botanical Gardens (2001-2004)
Advisory Board, Tennessee Arts and Sciences Consortium (2000 to present)
Planning Committee, Dyer Observatory of Vanderbilt University (2000 to present)

Obsessions include rocks and fish. See the web resources Judy developed on these topics:

Rock Camp

Fishy Science