Fred Buttell, PhD, LCSW

Fred Buttell is a Professor in the School of Social Work at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, where he also holds faculty appointments in the Tulane Schools of Medicine and Public Health & Tropical Medicine. He joined the Tulane University faculty in 2002, after spending five years on the faculty of the University of South Carolina. 

Dr. Buttell's main research interest involves understanding the causes and consequences of family violence, with a particular emphasis on Intimate Partner Violence, and he has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in that field. His most recent publications explore the relationship between IPV and disasters. He has been active in program development while at Tulane and has developed and administered three new degrees programs in his time there: an undergraduate program in Social Policy & Practice (in partnership with the School of Liberal Arts); a Ph.D. program in City, Community & Culture, conferring degrees in Social Work, Sociology & Urban Studies (in partnership with the Schools of Liberal Arts and Architecture); and the Doctorate in Social Work.

Dr. Buttell was appointed to Chair the Social/Behavioral IRB by Tulane’s VP of Research in 2013 and is the only social work faculty member to chair an IRB at AAU institutions. He has served as an expert witness dozens of times in criminal proceedings for Tulane’s Domestic Violence Law Clinic and the Women’s Prison Project.