Mayor Barbara Foushee

Barbara Foushee is the mayor of Carrboro. It is an historic moment, as she is the first Black woman mayor for the town and only the second Black person to serve in the position. As mayor, she presides over meetings of the Town Council and represents the town at ceremonies and events. During her time on the council, she has championed housing access and affordability, inclusive community engagement, and community building on issues that matter to all of us.

She has been in service to the Carrboro community since the 2017 municipal election and was re-elected to a second term in November 2021. Barbara has served in various capacities 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 to benefit the community and the workplace culture at OWASA.

Barbara has served as the liaison to 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 (current chair), the Economic Sustainability Commission, the Racial Equity Commission, the Community Safety Task Force and the policy steering committee for the Orange County Transit Plan. 

Barbara is passionate about community service and engagement outside of her service as an elected official. She is the immediate past Basileus of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Eta Phi Zeta Graduate Chapter; co-chair of the Community Action and Political Awareness Ministry at First Baptist Church of Chapel Hill; member of the Executive Committee for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP; a Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate; and 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, given annually by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. She has also been honored by her sorority, receiving both the Finer Womanhood Award and the Woman of the Year Award. She was also recognized by Chapel Hill Magazine in 2021 as a Woman of Achievement.

In her work life, Barbara is a senior technologist in a molecular oncology laboratory in Research Triangle Park and has spent her career working in clinical laboratory sciences. She grew up in eastern North Carolina and earned a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from Saint Augustine’s University.

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