MLK Community Celebration

Dr. LaDonna N. Butler is a nationally recognized healing artist, cultural strategist, and mental health leader shaping the future of community wellbeing at the intersection of healing, civic life, and systems change. Grounded in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to act with the fierce urgency of now, Dr. Butler advances a vision of healing as essential public infrastructure—critical to safety, belonging, and a functioning democracy. Her work centers the belief that communities thrive when care, truth-telling, and joy are treated as collective responsibilities rather than private burdens. As founder of The Well MN Counseling & Consulting, Dr. Butler has built scalable, community-rooted initiatives—including Healing While Black®, The Blackest Table, A Tiny Gallery Experience, and A Brunch of Us™—that translate lived experience into durable civic practice. A founding member of SPHERE, she was commissioned to lead the region’s National Day of Racial Healing, designing an immersive, participatory model grounded in story, movement, and reflection. Her work has been featured by TIME, The New York Times, and NPR. Dr. Butler serves in leadership with the Minnesota Counseling Association and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She brings national perspective and local commitment to the work of strengthening communities—not only for the moment, but for the generations to come.