kurstie butcher, cpm® candidate, arm®
property management/operations specialist
draper and kramer
chicago, il
kurstie butcher has been in the property management industry since 2013. she originally started her career in college station, texas after moving away from her hometown of haughton, louisiana. in college station she managed multiple student housing communities and later a multifamily community in the greater houston, texas area. in 2018, kurstie moved to illinois and was hired as a property manager for draper and kramer in the northwest suburbs of chicago.
she quickly obtained her illinois brokers license in 2019 and then became a member of chicago’s irem chapter in 2020. in 2020 she received her accredited residential manager (arm) certification and in 2021 she was accepted to the next-gen cpm leaders program. in may 2022 she completed the certified property manager (cpm) track and passed her mpsa and cpm exams. additionally, she was named as the arm of the year at the annual premier awards for her local chicago chapter.
within draper and kramer kurstie was nominated by her department head and selected by the company’s executive team to be one of the 9 members of the internal dk elevate team for 2021 to 2022. dk elevate is a program designed for high performing employees who demonstrate leadership attributes consistent with the values of the company.
in may of 2022 kurstie began her current position as a property management/ operations specialist. in this role, she is a resource for the site level employees with support tickets, trains new and existing site staff, and acts as a “floating” manager, when an onsite managers cannot be on site due to leave of absence, an open manager position, etc.
kurstie currently serves on irems national dei advisory board and serves on the cares committee for her local chapter. in addition to work and irem commitments, kurstie also volunteers at her local lgbtq+ youth center.