Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Chantelle Fisher-Borne is a longtime community builder and resource mobilizer from Southern Louisiana, a descendent of Catholic Cajuns, who’s made her home in Durham, North Carolina, for over 20 years. Her professional career began in the public health field with a focus on community development and LGBTQ youth. She has worked to address issues of affordable housing and homelessness through transforming community based services to better meet the needs of families living in poverty.
Currently, Chantelle serves as the Senior Project Director of Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Out In the South Initiative, which seeks to build strong, Southern-based, resource mobilization infrastructure. Since the start of OTS, Chantelle has supported a network of funders committed to supporting social justice work in southern communities and more than 15 LGBTQ-led and/or LGBTQ-supporting funds in the region to move millions toward building a healthy ecosystem of LGBTQ groups and organizations throughout the region. In her role she has also been able to partner with key organizations such as Grantmakers for Southern Progress to initiate and steward initiatives such as the Southern Power Fund which started in the COVID-19 pandemic and has since moved over $16 million to over 350 groups throughout the South.
Chantelle is inspired by the legacy of resilience and resistance found in communities throughout the South. She is grateful to have been able to support and been a part of many Southern-based and Southern-led efforts over the years to build a strong, fighting movement for the life, dignity, and well-being of LGBTQ communities and communities of color. She believes that there is a lot of work to do and is grounded by the daily reminders of the transformation that is possible through relationships built on trust, honesty, solidarity, and love.
She has two children whom she enjoys chasing around the park with her partner, who is Southern by way of Viet Nam. In her free time, she likes to go for a run and cook food for friends.