Jeffrey A. Butts is a member of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium and director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY) where he is a research professor. Previously, he was a research fellow with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, director of the Program on Youth Justice at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, and senior research associate at the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh. Butts has managed research projects with budgets totaling $51 Million ($58 Million in 2021 dollars) and he has worked with policymakers and justice practitioners in 28 states and several countries. He has published two books and dozens of monographs and reports for government agencies and foundations, as well as articles in academic and peer-reviewed journals. He graduated with a BA in sociology from the University of Oregon and an MSW from Portland State University before earning his PhD at the University of Michigan. Jeff began his justice career as a drug and alcohol counselor with the juvenile court in Eugene, Oregon.