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Emily Butera

Emily Butera serves as senior program officer for the Detention and Asylum Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, where she advocates for the protection of women, children and families seeking asylum in the United States.

Prior to joining the Women’s Refugee Commission, Emily worked for Catholic Legal Immigration Network, where she conducted research and program development around citizenship and immigrant integration initiatives. She has also served as policy advocate at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and as the organization’s senior consultant for organizational capacity building. She was the LIRS author of the 2007 Women's Refugee Commission report on family detention, Locking Up Family Values, and co-authored Women’s Refugee Commission’s 2009 report on unaccompanied alien children, Halfway Home. Emily has developed and managed youth, legal and welfare-to-work programs for immigrants and refugees and designed and led coexistence programming for Seeds of Peace.

Emily holds an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in Human Rights and Nationalism from Kenyon College.