As Gulf Coast Housing Partnership’s President and CEO Kathy Laborde provides overall leadership to GCHP, overseeing the organization’s project pipeline, financing, construction, asset management and property management activities.

Over the course of her career Ms. Laborde has developed more than 7,000 affordable and market-rate homes and commercial and community facilities both directly and in partnership with local non-profits, city and state government, and the private sector. Prior to joining Gulf Coast Housing Partnership in 2006, Ms. Laborde operated Kaliope, LLC, a real estate development and consulting company which she established in 1999. Previously, she was founder and executive director of the first bank-owned community development corporation in Louisiana. Before settling in Louisiana, Ms. Laborde held a variety of management positions with private sector real estate developers in Missouri and North Carolina.

Ms. Laborde holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an MBA from Tulane University. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Housing Partnership Network, Regional Community Finance, Louisiana Land Trust, Mississippi Association of Affordable Housing Providers, and the Louisiana Association of Affordable Housing Providers. She is a 2018 recipient of JPMorgan Chase & Co's 300 for 300 New Orleans Tricentennial "12 Icons for New Orleans" Award and a past recipient of the YWCA's Role Model Award.