Buttenwieser has served on the Harvard Board of Overseers executive committee since 2005, while vice chair of the board's committee on humanities and arts. He has in recent years been the Overseers' liaison for Harvard's ArtsFirst festival, and also serves on the board's standing committees on institutional policy and on alumni affairs and development. A member of the Committee to Visit the Graduate School of Education, he has also been a member of visiting committees to an array of departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - English, Government, Music, Psychology, and Visual and Environmental Studies. A resident of Belmont, Mass., Buttenwieser is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and in private practice. He has taught courses on doctor-patient relationships and the experience of illness. He is also the author of two novels: "Free Association" (1981) and "Their Pride and Joy" (1987). Active in the Boston arts community, Buttenwieser is a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Art. At Harvard, he has long served on the American Repertory Theatre's advisory board, including seven years as its chair. He has also been a strong advocate for undergraduate public service, working closely with Phillips Brooks House. Along with his wife Katie, he founded the Family-to-Family Project, a nonprofit foundation formed to aid families who have lost their homes.