Prentice Butler
Prentice Butler (Executive Director) joined The Neighborhood Bridge as the Executive Director in 2024. Prentice is a Chicago-born civic leader who has committed his professional career to the service of others. He is strongly committed to social justice and civic engagement and has spent his career working to improve the quality of life in low- and moderate-income communities across Chicago.
Prior to joining The Neighborhood Bridge, Prentice served as the Deputy Director for the Illinois Justice Project (ILJP), an organization created to spearhead reform efforts in the State of Illinois. Most notably, the organization spearheaded the SAFE-T Act, the first legislation of its kind in the nation to eliminate the cash bail system in Illinois.
From 2011-2023, he served on the staff of Sophia D. King, Alderwoman of Chicago's Fourth Ward. This included serving as King’s Chief of Staff from 2017-2023. Prentice ran for office for the Fourth Ward Aldermanic seat in the 2023 election cycle and came in second.
Before working on Alderwoman King’s staff, Prentice was a bankruptcy consultant at the Law Offices of Ernesto D. Borges Jr. P.C. for seven years and a District Executive with the Chicago Area Boy Scouts of America on the southwest side of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
Prentice serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations, including the New Leaders Council Chicago, South-Siders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Hales Franciscan High School, and Free Lunch Academy (FLA). He was recently elected Southeast Chicago Commission (SECC) board chair and is a member of 100 Black Men of Chicago, a mentorship organization, and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the first collegiate fraternity established for African American men. Prentice is also the former president of the University of Chicago’s Association of Black Alumni, an organization designed to foster a better community between Black Alumni of the University and the greater community.
Prentice grew up in the South Shore neighborhood on the southeast side of Chicago. He attended Hales Franciscan High School and graduated in 1998 as class Valedictorian. Prentice earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 2002 and a Master’s degree in Urban Life Learning: Chicago Studies from Loyola University Chicago in 2007. He received a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy in December 2020.
Prentice lives in Chicago's Bronzeville community on the southside of the city, where he has resided since 2007.