The Opportunity Institute CEO and leadership

Dr. Akilah Watkins are a CEO and President at Center for Community Progress and Chief Executive Officer at Opportunity Institute and are based in Washington d.c. Metro Area. They have worked as Associate Director at Center for the Study of Social Policy The, Co-Founder and Executive Director at i.am, and Deputy Director at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Akilah attended Southern New Hampshire University between 2000 and 2002, Southern New Hampshire University between 2004 and 2006, and SUNY Empire State College between 1999 and 2003.

Dr. Akilah Watkins-Butler is President and CEO for the Center for Community Progress, America’s non-profit leader for turning “Vacant Spaces into Vibrant Places.”

A 25-year national thought leader, conference speaker, and non-profit executive, Dr. Watkins-Butler’s work began at the age of 14 when she led efforts to convert a vacant lot and abandoned home into a community center in Roosevelt, New York. Since then, she’s served as an executive leader for non-profits and community development initiatives which includes work with the Obama administration, NeighborWorks America, the Ford Foundation, and hundreds of municipalities throughout the U.S.

Today, Dr. Watkins-Butler’s work as an equity advocate includes leading work in more than 300 communities in 48 states at Community Progress. Collaboratively, Community Progress works to grow strong, equitable communities where vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are transformed into assets for neighbors and neighborhoods.