Since participating in the UW Sociology M.A. program, Steve Butler has conducted evaluation research and policy analysis for state government (the Wyoming Community College Commission), worked as an independent research consultant, and more recently, worked as a research scientist for the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) at the University of Wyoming. As a former policy analyst and then deputy director of the Wyoming Community College Commission, he both managed and evaluated programs involving complex mixes of stakeholder organizations. An evaluation of juvenile and adult drug courts in Wyoming, a year-long WYSAC project on which Butler was a principal investigator and the primary author, won the 2006 Philip Hoke National Publication Award for Excellence in Research/Policy Analysis given by the Justice Research and Statistics Association. Other applied research projects/reports include: Scheduled Prescription Drug Distribution in Wyoming: Analysis of the Wyoming Prescription Drug Monitoring Program 2004-2009; The Wind River Indian Reservation Needs Determination Survey (WINDS III) 2010; Recidivism Survival Analysis of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative 2003-2007; District Variation in Special Education Spending in Wyoming.