Leonard Burton

Leonard Burton is President and CEO of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), where he provides visionary leadership in advancing the organization’s mission to achieve racial, economic, and social justice for children, youth, and families. A nationally respected executive, strategist, and advocate, Burton brings more than three decades of leadership spanning public systems, philanthropy, community change, faith-based engagement, and youth development. Throughout his career, he has remained steadfast in his commitment to dismantling systemic inequities and building the conditions in which all children, families, and communities can thrive.

Prior to becoming President and CEO, Burton served as a Senior Fellow at CSSP, where he helped shape the organization’s work across systems change and public policy. He is known for bringing together strategy, policy, and practice in ways that are both visionary and grounded—linking big-picture transformation to the daily realities facing children, youth, families, and the communities that support them. His leadership reflects a deep belief in dignity, possibility, and the power of community-rooted solutions to drive lasting change.

Burton is also a co-developer of the upEND Movement, a national effort to abolish family policing and reimagine how society cares for and supports children and families. His broader national leadership includes service on the board of WestEd and advisory work with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network at Northwestern University, where he supports youth engagement and anti-racist practice in child welfare and juvenile justice. He has also served as a faculty coach for the Breakthrough Series Collaboratives focused on transition-age youth and fathers and paternal relatives in child welfare.

A proud native of Detroit, Michigan, Burton attended Langston University, earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Austin Peay State University, and holds a master’s degree in Education Administration and Supervision from Tennessee State University. He is a combat veteran of the U.S. Army, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and lives in Huntsville, Alabama, with his spouse, Cheryl.