El’Verson Mitchell, a UM–Dearborn Counseling and Psychological Services clinician, helped students sort out the challenges they were facing. As a way to help them prioritize, he would encourage his clients to always remember the butter.
To Mitchell, butter represented life’s good stuff — family, faith, friendship — and, when you have a plateful of responsibilities, that butter is what always goes on the top.
UM-Dearborn student Camille Purifoy regularly met with Mitchell through CAPS. His words inspired her to stop juggling so many competing priorities and choose what she feels truly matters to her future. “Every conversation, every counseling session that we had, we always talked about that butter. That butter is what is needed in life to get you through,” she said. “He said, ‘You have a lot of hats that you wear.’ He gained his wings before I could tell him that I did release some of those hats. And I’m getting through because of that butter.”
Mitchell was killed when his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver at a Clinton Township intersection on Dec. 29. The CAPS office is establishing an endowed scholarship to build upon his legacy and a plaque in his name will be installed in the Fieldhouse over the summer. Mitchell served as a CAPS liaison for UM-Dearborn Athletics, coordinating student-athlete support.
CAPS and Disability and Accessibility Services Director Sara Byczek said the university wants Mitchell’s mission of helping others to continue. “When his friend called me to let me know about the accident while on break, I began calling Verson’s clients — I wanted to let them know before they saw it on the news,” Byczek said. “Each of the students I spoke with talked about how much he helped them. There were so many stories about the difference he made. We wanted to do something he would appreciate — through this scholarship, Verson will help college students in perpetuity.”
Give to the El’Verson Mitchell scholarship fund.
She said Mitchell, who began working at UM-Dearborn in 2023, became a therapist to help support college students. A driving factor was that Mitchell himself benefited from therapy while he was an undergraduate student at Albion College. During that time, a friend of Mitchell’s died from self-harm.
“Verson talked about how that really impacted him and really solidified to him why therapy was so important — he said we need to be able to talk more about what we’re experiencing and not suffer in silence,” Byczek said. Mitchell, who played football at Albion College, wanted to remove the stigma of seeking mental health, especially among people of color, males and athletes. Mitchell graduated from Albion with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and earned a Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan. He had recently completed his 4,000 hours of post-degree supervised clinical experience to become a fully licensed master social worker.
“He wanted people to know that talking about your mental health is not a weakness — it’s strength,” Byczek said. For his work, Mitchell was nominated for the Chancellor’s Rising Star Staff Award in November.
Byczek said Mitchell was a gifted listener and a man of few words. But when he did express himself, he did it thoughtfully. “Verson had this authentic intentionality that would come out in his words and actions,” she said. “He brought himself wholly and truly to everything because he deeply cared and wanted to help those around us. His presence brought joy to others.”
Mitchell’s personality shined through in his interactions and how he carried himself. He often wore a cowboy hat and boots and was known for his enthusiasm for cologne. To remember him, several members from the UM-Dearborn community went to My Bakoor and Perfumes in Dearborn at the end of March to create signature scents.
It was one of Mitchell’s favorite stores and he wanted the colleagues he worked closely with to go there with him as a team bonding activity. Even with all of the responsibilities to juggle as the semester’s end approaches, the CAPS and DAS teams prioritized the memory of their colleague and friend. They listened to Mitchell’s advice and remembered the butter.
Story by Sarah Tuxbury
