Rachel Butler

Rachel Butler is a sociology PhD student at Johns Hopkins University.  She studies social inequality, focusing on race, criminal justice system contact, and family life.  Rachel currently serves as a research fellow with the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality’s American Voices Project.  At PIRL, she has managed two research projects: the Extreme Poverty Pilot Study and the Baltimore Family Study.

Academic background

Rachel grew up in Washington, D.C., and received a B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University and an M.S.Ed. in Elementary Education from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.  She taught in public and charter elementary schools in Philadelphia and a tuition-free private school for boys in Washington, D.C. Rachel also worked as a program associate for the Education Reimagined project at the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, and served as the Early Leaning Program Coordinator at the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative. Her favorite things to do in Baltimore include swimming outdoors in the summer and going dancing at Ottobar and the Crown.

Research Interests:  Race, Criminal Justice, Poverty, and Family Life

Research Projects: The American Voices Project, The Extreme Poverty Pilot Study, The Baltimore Family Study

Contact information

Office: 533 Mergenthaler Hall / Abel Wolman House
Email: rachel.butler@jhu.edu
Lab: Poverty and Inequality Research Lab
Address: 3213 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218

Recent publications

Articles

Edin, Kathryn & Nelson, Timothy & Butler, Rachel & Francis, Robert. (2019). Taking Care of Mine: Can Child Support Become a Family‐Building Institution?. Journal of Family Theory & Review. 11. 79-91. 10.1111/jftr.12324.