Tonya Butler, J.D., LL.M. is an multi-talented speaker, teacher, author and career coach. She is a seasoned veteran of the music industry with more than 14 years of experience as an entertainment attorney and record label executive. She is an accomplished workshop coordinator and professional speaker with over two-dozen nationwide appearances under her belt.

Her professional affiliations have included President of the NABFEME (National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment) Memphis network, Executive Board member of MEIEA (Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association), voting member and former Governor of the Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy and Chair Emeritus of the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission.

Professor Butler also has 10 years of undergraduate and graduate level teaching experience as Course Director of Entertainment Marketing and Entertainment Media Distribution at The Los Angeles Film School; Associate Professor of Music Business at MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University), Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Music Business at the University of Memphis and adjunct Professor of ADR at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law..

—She holds a Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law and a Master of Laws in Entertainment and Media from Southwestern University School of Law/Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England.

She is currently Director of the Music Industry Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato.