About Dr. Birute Regine

While getting her doctorate in human development at Harvard in the 1980's, Birute Regine, EdD was part of that groundbreaking research that exposed new insights into girl’s development and women’s psychology. She collaborated with Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice, and served as a teaching assistant to Pulitzer Prize winner Erik Erikson. One time when Regine was invited to speak on a panel, she was asked what her passion was. Instinctively she said she wanted to resolve the ‘battle of the sexes’ as it was called in those days. Certainly a bold ambition but in her latest book, Iron Butterflies:women transforming themselves and the world she returns to this passion, reframed this time as a way to bring greater balance in a world out of balance, where feminine and masculine skills and values, and men and women are equally empowered as leaders.

For twenty-five years Regine worked as psychotherapist in private practice, trained in family systems, gestalt, and relational theory. She studied at the College of Executive Coaching and today she works as an executive and life coach. She spent two years as a visiting scholar at the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College and as an affiliate to the Stone Center where she explored the power of stories as vehicles of organizational change. Drawn to complexity science, she found herself in the world of business and co-authored the highly acclaimed book The Soul at Work: Embracing Complexity Science for Business Success with science writer Roger Lewin.

In retrospect Regine realized that the leaders in The Soul at Work were men who had embraced a more feminine side in their leadership style. Regine wondered what this dynamic balance between masculine and feminine qualities looked like in women leaders. This query led her to sixty women from ten countries and from many walks of life: The result was Iron Butterflies, a labor of love turned into a labor of patience and perseverance for it would take eight years and many delays before it would be published.

Regine is an experienced key note speaker at national and international conferences and to organizations, on “the people side of business.” She speaks to women’s groups, and to Iron Butterfly circles that are cropping up around the country where women fully embrace their role as leaders. She has been a guest on numerous radio and television programs. She blogs for the Huffington Post and Forbes. She facilitates retreats or rather what she calls “advancements,” that focus primarily on accelerating women’s leadership and power individually and collectively. She is founder of Iron Butterfly Circles community.

Regine is married to science writer Roger Lewin. Her daughter Rasa Dawson works for Oxfam America and her son Romas Zimlicki is a Major in the Army who has been to Iraq three times.. She has three adorable grandchildren. Modern dance, yoga, and hiking serve as Regine’s therapy. Cooking and entertaining are her playgrounds. She divides her time between Cambridge, MA , Hancock, NH and Richmond VA.