Paula C. Butterfield is currently the chief academic officer and deputy superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools. She oversees special education in this district where 15 percent of approximately 40,000 students are in special education. Prior to serving in Pittsburgh, Butterfield was a superintendent for 10 years in Mercer Island, Wash., and Bozeman, Mont. Butterfield began her career in education as a social studies teacher and a reading specialist and special education teacher with extensive experience as a curriculum director, middle school and high school principal, and school superintendent. She was named Montana Superintendent of the Year in 1998 and has been a Fulbright scholar.

Butterfield has her doctorate in special education and has offered expert testimony before the U.S. Congress on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She was selected as a lead superintendent for the Danforth Foundation's early childhood initiative "Success for all Children" and is also a National Fellow at the Institute for Learning at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. She is one of the few special educators who has also been a superintendent, making her an education leader for all children.

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