Community Superstar: Margaret D. Bordeaux

This February, during Black History Month, we are highlighting 4 amazing Community Superstars. These incredible people are local Black leaders in North Carolina who have been doing amazing work in their communities!

This final week of February, our Community Superstar is Margaret D. Bordeaux. Margaret is an inspiring and committed activist, who has been serving her community as a harm reductionist.

Margaret currently serves as the Justice-Involved Overdose Prevention Specialist with the state’s Injury and Violence Prevention Branch (IVPB). In this role, she surveys the current landscape of jail- and prison-based health services in NC, provides technical assistance to local health departments and community-based organizations with existing and emerging projects and develops and introduces promising strategies to advance the work. These programs and initiatives include but are not limited to medication-assisted treatment in correctional and reentry settings, jail-based testing and treatment for communicable diseases, in-reach harm reduction education and overdose prevention trainings and curricula development, naloxone-upon release programs, and comprehensive overdose prevention programming and analysis of related policies. In addition to her work in IVPB, Margaret is leading a strategic body of work from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative to identify and support programs evidenced to promote optimal health outcomes and treatment for people who use drugs involved in the legal justice system.

Margaret brings intense passion to her all areas of her work. Margaret has built her career on helping others, from getting people into the treatment they need to help find the best solutions for all North Carolina communities. Most importantly, she incorporates health equity into every piece of her work and ensures everyone she encounters is treated with respect, dignity, compassion, and grace.

Margaret is guided in her work by the words of the late Imani Woods, a harm reduction pioneer, “Harm reduction is a form of social justice. It’s simple – it talks about the quality of life for every single person.” 

We are honored to be highlighting Margaret during Black History Month and we are grateful for her commitment to harm reduction!