Board Chair Richie Butler is the senior pastor of the historic St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church in Dallas and Founder of Project Unity. Under his visionary leadership, Project Unity offers community building and diversity, equity, and inclusion solutions through its “Together We” programs like Together We Ball, Together We Dine, Together We Learn, and Together We Sing. As a civic leader, in response to the five Dallas police officers who were ambushed in 2016, Richie launched the Year of Unity, a community-wide initiative to help bridge racial community divides where the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, served as the Honorary Chair.

In 2020, he launched the Together We Test and Together We Vaccinate programs to address a lack of COVID-19 testing and vaccines in communities of color which resulted in more than 10,000 being tested and vaccinated. He launched the Together We Can initiative to address the question, “What can I do?” in response to the death of George Floyd. The Together We Can program has attracted Fortune 500 companies, universities, foundations, and grassroots organizations partners. Richie has over 20 years of experience in private equity real estate investment management, with extensive real estate development, finance and institutional fund management experience. Richie has been responsible for nearly $1 billion of institutional real estate investment and fund management activity throughout the U.S.

Previously, Richie was the senior managing director of the Prescott Realty Group, a senior vice president of CityView, a managing partner of Solomon Partners and a bank officer with Bank of America. In addition, he was the deputy political director for U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Richie was also the founding senior pastor of Union Cathedral. In 2014, he successfully merged Union Cathedral, an independent interdenominational church, with the historic St. Paul United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas.

Richie holds two bachelor’s degrees from Southern Methodist University and a master’s in theology from Harvard University; he’s also done extended studies in Urban Planning at MIT. He was the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study art history and political science in Europe. Richie and his wife, Neisha Strambler-Butler, have two young adult children, Emily and Ford.

James Armstrong III is the Senior Pastor of the Community Fellowship Church in West Dallas and the President & CEO of Builders of Hope
Development Corporation, a leading community development corporations in Dallas. He has served as a certified Urban Economic Development expert since 2010 and is a member of the Mayor’s Grow South Advisory Council. With expertise and experience in Non-Profit management, marketing, business development, grant writing, and finance James. Additional experience includes over 10 years in the Investment Banking industry with added knowledge of complex lending and financing. Within these years he has worked for some of the top Fortune 500 companies like J. P. Morgan Chase and New York Life Securities and Investments. His career experience is heavily used in his role as a board member of The City of Dallas’ Housing Finance Corporation, where complex and creative financing is critical to completing some of the biggest financing housing deals in Dallas. Alongside his career in finance, James is amply involved in his community. His core ideology is that community engagement is key to urban development. As a result James has hosted multiple community meetings and have become skilled in community organizing and strategizing. James uses his education and economic development expertise within the West Dallas community and as a board member of 2nd Saturday Industries. James is a proud graduate of Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and has completed postgraduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2017 James was award the Dallas Business Journal 40 under 40 award for his accomplishments in business.

Primary Research Interests: 
Emergency response and recovery; housing recovery assistance; Neighborhood Institutions (HOA vs. NA); Local Governance and Inter-local Collaboration; Community Engagement Research; State Preemption