Dragonfly Enterprises (DFE) is an educational consulting company specializing in support to formal and informal educational agencies including K-12 schools, universities, museums, historical societies, and NASA's education and public outreach programs. Established in 2002 by Judy Butler, this woman-owned business has grown to include other experienced consultants working collaboratively to provide a broad array of educational services. We work closely with our clients to design high quality professional development programs for educators, evaluation and research for grants, and well-designed reports. Detailed descriptions of current clients, their programs, and DFE services can be found in the Projects section of the website.

Judy Butler

Judy Butler, the owner and lead consultant for Dragonfly Enterprises 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 the student teacher coordinator for the Special Education Department at 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. Dragonfly Enterprises is located in Nashville, Tennessee. To download Judy Butlers curriculum vita as a .pdf file, click here.

Dr. Susan Kuner

Dr. Kuner, President of Topaz Canyon Group has been the Senior Consultant for Dragonfly Enterprises for the last four years. She has extensive experience in education, training, community outreach, and program evaluation. She is an adjunct assistant professor for Vanderbilt University's internship program in San Francisco, which is part of the Department of Human and Organizational Development. She is the former assistant director of Vanderbilt's Department of Community and Government Relations and the former director of Vanderbilt's Virtual School where she pioneered the use of video teleconferencing to connect the academic community to K-12 students. Dr. Kuner resides in Alameda, California and works "virtually" in projects in Tennessee and across the country. To download Dr. Kuner's vita as a .pdf file, click here.

Ms. Butler and Dr. Kuner currently serve as the external evaluators for federal grants from the Department of Education and numerous other grants from NASA, NSF, and NIH. They take a hands-on approach to evaluation. Currently they are the external evaluators for five federally funded Tennessee Teaching American History grants totaling more than $6,700,000.   Two of these projects were renewed in July 2006 for three additional years of teacher professional development. For details see Projects.

Why the name Dragonfly Enterprises?

The name Dragonfly Enterprises was selected because of my interest in using rivers as outdoor classrooms in science education. When students are doing water quality studies, a dragonfly larva is one of the most interesting critters netted from the stream. Their presence is an indicator of good quality water. It is fascinating to examine the life cycle of these creatures. They sometimes live for three years before they crawl out of their aquatic nursery unfold their wings and fly off to do the good deed of eating pesky mosquitoes.

As a young child growing up in south Louisiana, I learned to prize the Dragonfly as a backyard treasure. We wished for little armies of them to come swooping down at dusk to gobble up those mean, biting marauders. They were our heroes. We would chase after them through the high grass watching their jeweled bodies and their transparent wings fluttering through the evening mist. So when naming this business, I thought of these delightful creatures that I had so many fond memories of.