Debra M. Butler, PhD (Environmental Studies) is the Executive Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP). She also serves as a member of the working committee on Managed Retreat in the Gulf Coast Region by the National Academies of Sciences. Prior to this work, she was a Mellon Foundation fellow for Native and Indigenous Studies at the Five College Consortium in Amherst, MA. She collaborates with Tribal and place-based communities in building equitable climate futures through restoration and stewardship of local ecologies and sacred sites, intergenerational storytelling and advocacy.

Debra’s praxis and research focuses on climate mitigation,  migration and resettlement, particularly on the northern U.S. Gulf coast. She has received fellowships from the National Academies of Science Gulf Research Program, National Science Foundation and the Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.