Leigh Bohannon serves as the Community Outreach & Resource Manager. This includes events, classes, workshops and or activities, as well as being a support to individuals and families with their various needs.  She assists with goal setting and removing barriers to achieving those goals.  Leigh also serves in creating and maintaining partnerships with local organizations, programs and businesses.  If you have ever participated in anything BPI it’s likely you have or will have a pleasant interaction with Leigh at some point.

 

Graduating Cum Laude with a bachelor in Marketing from the Historically Black College and University, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, Leigh has had a chance to pursue many different aspects of the marketing and business field. One of which landed her as an on-air radio personality for the first black owned radio station in Alabama. Leading her to later pursue her associate in Integrated Media with a focus on radio broadcasting. While in college, Leigh began working as a civilian employee for the Aviation and Missile Command center on Redstone Arsenal, where she got her first experiences in the areas of Continuous Improvement and Lean Six Sigma. Leading to future jobs working in the realm of quality improvement for other organizations and non-profits. Her experiences range from executive administrative assistant, to bar tender, to legal secretary, to customer service manager for a major retailer. One thing remained constant and that was her commitment to the black community.

 

Starting in high school Leigh mentored youth, started tutoring partnerships with her high school and local elementary schools, created culturally specific clubs, that during a time of cuts, kept programs like the MLK day celebrations and Black History Month celebrations alive on her campus. This passion for uplifting, rebuilding, and strengthening the community carried through college and into her adulthood. She led mentorships that focused on goal setting in school and home with Boys & Girls clubs in the projects of Huntsville, AL and continues to work hard with various youth organizations now. Leigh is a member of the Portland Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated and is hard at work with the teen girls she mentors through the Les Femmes Debutantes. She was born and raised a Portland girl with deep roots in the south. Currently a mother of 3 amazingly active kids, she enjoys music, technology, reading, the outdoors, dancing, and cooking. She does southern barbecue catering on the side, with hopes to open her own successful, family run food truck one day.

 

“I believe the success of our future generations is addressed from many different angles. We need to build and strengthen the black family from within the home. We need to revitalize and continue our culture as a people. We need to empower and support our youth and we need to hold our community accountable. This is what drives me. Being a solution oriented person. I don’t need the shine or the accolades that come with doing good work. I just need to see the good work being done. I believe that I can be a change conduit and I have charged myself and my family to be just that.”