Meet the Dean
Dr. Brian Butler is Dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama. Dr. Butler is a nationally recognized leader in the study of online communities, social media and organizational resilience.
He has been a Senior Editor at MIS Quarterly, a Division Chair in the Academy of Management, and has received funding from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Microsoft, Facebook and Intel.
Prior to joining The University of Alabama, Dr. Butler was a professor and leader at the University of Maryland where he served as the founding co-director of the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center.
Additional roles previously held by Dr. Butler at UMD include director of the Master of Information Management Program and director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information.
His research interests include the development and modeling of online communities and social media systems, interplay of power and information technology in organizations, and techniques for deploying complex information systems to support organizational performance, community resilience and individual well-being.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science, and Master of Science and doctorate in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University. His dissertation was one of the first large-scale computational studies of social media dynamics.
Executive Council
The Executive Council of the College of Communication and Information Sciences is composed of the Dean, assistant and associate deans, directors and department chairs who serve the college in a leadership capacity. This council serves in an advisory role to the Dean and represents the faculty and staff as they work to achieve the college’s mission, vision and strategic priorities.
