Board of Directors
Robert Turvey - Board President
A seasoned entrepreneur from Portland with deep ties to community engagement and resource development. He owns Sustainable Construction Solutions and a marketing firm. Additionally, he runs Soil and Cedar farm, aimed at producing food and teaching others sustainable agroforestry techniques. Born and raised in Portland, Robert is Board President for Pride Northwest and has served on multiple boards.
Cathán Tautfest - Vice President
Cathán has been volunteering with Pride Northwest since 2014, where they started off as a day-of volunteer for the Festival and Parade. They found their passion in that weekend and have been volunteering since. Cathán was voted onto the Board of Directors in 2017 and stepped into the interim co-president role in December of 2018.
Cathán is passionate about the community and all it has to offer. Their area of interest is the gender diverse community. They believe that gender is a personal and unique experience that should be celebrated. Cathán’s personal goal is to see more resources created for the gender diverse community. Cathán has been working on creating and bringing more resources to the gender diverse community in Vancouver, WA.
Cathán was born in Portland, OR and has lived in the Pacific Northwest their entire life. Cathán started their professional journey in 2016 when they graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a certificate in Human Services Case Management from Washington State University, and look forward to continuing on in academia. Cathán spends their free time volunteering within the local community, going on adventures, and snuggling their cat, Loki.
Justin Pabalate - Board Treasurer
Justin Pabalate (he.him.his) is a queer Filipino American and the owner of nerdDOTgay LLC. He has over twenty five years of experience working in nonprofit organizations helping them to connect with their communities through mission impact and organizational transformation. Locally, Justin has lent his leadership skills to Basic Rights Oregon as the Individual Giving Manager, Q Center as the Co-Executive Director, Oregon Community Foundation as a Donor Relations Officer, and most recently to The People’s Nonprofit Accelerator, formerly WVDO, as the Executive Director.
Justin brings a wealth queer community building experience through his former roles at the aforementioned Q Center and Basic Rights Oregon, as House Party Manger for Oregon United for Marriage, as a Co-Founder of Humboldt Pride, Vice President of CAPI Pride, and as Saint Reaching Rainbow of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Abbey of the Big Redwood. He holds several certifications which have strengthened his ability to serve the community through his board service.
Justin lives in SE Portland, Oregon with his husband Nick and cat. He loves gardening and is a huge Storm of the X-Men stan(Lee). He looks forward to using his EDIJ (equity, diversity, inclusion and justice) informed skillset to enhance his role as the Treasurer for Pride NW and is grateful for the opportunity to uplift the experiences of queer BIPOC community members.
Whitney Bourdier - Board Secretary
Whitney Yvette has been all about community engagement since 2018 and has never looked back. Growing up in the Deep South where those who identify as queer commonly face unemployment, a dwindling personal support system, and at times life endangerment — she became determined to do whatever was needed to create a better future.
Outside of Pride Northwest, Whitney serves as the Vice President in transition to President of the nonprofit Girls Dream Code whose main purpose is to teach and expose young girls of color to STEM. She has also acquired certifications about the domestic nonprofit space with Cornerstone Foundation Initiatives Nonprofit ready educational platform and acquired certifications about the international nonprofit space through training provided as a member of the Young Leaders of The America’s (YLAI). Her particular area of interest is the empowerment through knowledge, as a fan of data activism she has three peer reviewed publications around the current state of the public education system and plans to continue her publication work while obtaining a Masters of Science in Data Science to help bring awareness to commonly overlooked issues impacting marginalized citizens.
During her time on the board, Whitney wants to make education around local queer figures, safe space measures for local public facilities, and board self development more commonplace in Pride Northwest. When she is not working towards a better tomorrow, you can more than likely find her somewhere reading or playing games with her spouse! Whitney is currently building a personal library of her childhood dreams filled with historical books highlighting marginalized communities and fantasy books with female leads that resemble her.