Barbara Foushee 

WHY I SERVE: 

“I have a long-term commitment to serving the Carrboro community, I will continue to work toward understanding and addressing the issues that are important to community members.  I will continue to advocate for an affordable and equitable community where everyone is welcome.”

What I Like Best About Carrboro:

“I like the many opportunities that exist for the community to engage with local government.  I believe that it is so important to hear from folks in town as they are impacted by every decision that the Carrboro Town Council makes.”

About:

Barbara M. Foushee is a Senior Technologist in a Molecular Oncology Laboratory in Research Triangle Park; and has spent her entire career working in clinical laboratory sciences. Barbara grew up in eastern North Carolina and graduated from historic Saint Augustine’s University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Medical Technology.

She was first elected to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen in the November 2017 municipal election and was re-elected to a second term in November 2021.   Barbara has served in various capacities in the community and with the town including the Town of Carrboro’s Human Services Advisory Board and the Orange Water and Sewer Authority Board of Directors, where she was instrumental in helping the utility develop and implement a diversity and inclusion program that has been benefited the community and the workplace culture at OWASA.

In her first term on the council, Barbara served as the liaison to the Human Services Advisory Board, the Affordable Housing Advisory Commission, the Planning Board, the Intergovernmental Parks Work Group, the Transportation Advisory Board, the Community Home Trust Board of Directors, the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness, the Economic Sustainability Commission, the Racial Equity Commission and the policy steering committee for the Orange County Transit Plan.  She also helped to establish the first youth-led Martin Luther King, Jr. event in Carrboro as a way to engage our youth and bring the community together.

Barbara is passionate about community service and engagement outside of her service on the Council.  She is the current Basileus of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, Eta Phi Zeta Graduate Chapter; she co-chairs the Community Action and Political Awareness Ministry at First Baptist Church of Chapel Hill; serves on the Executive Committee for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP; serves on My Brother's and Sister's Keeper of Orange County Advisory Board; and is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Randolph Chapter #185.

Barbara is the recipient of the 2017 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award that is given annually by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP.  She has also been honored by her Sorority on numerous occasions having received the Finer Womanhood Award as well as the Woman of the Year Award.

She is married to Mr. Braxton D. Foushee, who was the first Black alderman in the Town of Carrboro.