Joanne Butler
Senior Economic Fellow
BA, English Literature (University of Maryland), MA, Management (Central Michigan University), MPA (Harvard University), is an instructor in economics at Wilmington University. Joanne started her career with a small defense electronics consulting firm and then shifted to Washington, D.C. There she worked in the Office of U.S. Trade Representative as an analyst working on Canadian trade issues, an economist in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (where she authored the first comprehensive survey of South Africa's food distribution system in the post-apartheid era) and an economist with the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, where she worked on international trade, Social Security reform and disability issues. She was a legislative liaison for the Social Security Administration and a senior policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, where she worked on revisions to the Family Medical Leave Act regulations and program operation issues. From 1998 to 2002, she was a member of the governing board of the Longwood College of Virginia (a four-year state university), which included chairing the audit committee. Joanne specializes in the intersection of applied economics and public policy.