- BS, MS Clinical Psychology, University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana-Lafayette)
- Graduate of Extension Service Program: Community Organization, Community Development, Communications and Program Design, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
- Graduate of University of Massachusetts at Amherst Summer Program in Popular Economics
- Graduate of Kennedy School at Harvard’s Summer Program on leadership and negotiations
President
She serves as an advisor to foundations and public policy makers on issues of housing, community and economic development. She was a qualifying party to hold a State Residential Contractor’s License for SMHA.
Many national conferences
University of Louisiana-Lafayette – Commencement
University of Louisiana-Lafayette – Honors Students Convocation
South Louisiana Community College – Inaugural Class Commencement
Lorna traveled to Norway, Russia, Cuba and Brazil to study women in international development, sugar cane economics, and philanthropy’s role in investment and development of communities.
From 1992‑1998, Ms. Bourg initiated and led the recovery of the remains of 17 U.S. Airmen, (her brother among them), who were shot down in 1958 over the former Soviet Armenia; changed the military DNA Protocol as applied to aged remains and obtained a final full accounting and group burial with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Lorna spurred a change in the military DNA Protocol as applied to aged remains, which received national attention, and obtained a group burial for the 17 men with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. She returned their dog tags to their families.
Lorna, along with Sr. Helen Vinton and Chemist Wilma Subra were featured in Women Pioneers of the Louisiana Environmental Movement by Peggy Frankland.
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Lorna lives on Bayou Teche in a home she designed. She says, “I wanted to be a lawyer, an actress, a psychologist and a nun working among the poor. In co-founding SMHA and leading it for 40 years, I have been able to engage in all of these interesting and challenging pursuits.”
Lorna Bourg has worked for economic and environmental justice in low wealth communities for over 56 years in Louisiana. Her skills as educator and organizer have enabled challenged rural communities to develop a vision and determine goals and strategies toward long term improvement. She has extensive experience in the housing and the construction industry.
Her first efforts were on behalf of the sugar cane field workers around New Iberia. She made such strides improving their lives that the national media took notice.
Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. Foundation for accomplishments in public affairs, dedication to creative pursuits and capacity for self direction – She was the first woman and one of the first two people to be awarded from Louisiana, along with John Scott, Sculptor and Professor of Fine Arts at Xavier University
Appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights – Louisiana Advisory Committee in 1995 – 2005 – Reappointed in 2011
Featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt on displacement of 98,000 members of farm worker families
Featured on CBS Sixty Minutes on sugar cane plantation justice issues
Featured on film by Tamouz Productions on PBS on World Sugar Workers
Developed, directed and produced Plantation Portraits: Women of the Louisiana Cane Fields
Served for six years as Treasurer of Southern Regional Council (an Atlanta based 13 states Civil Rights Organization)
After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Lorna established a Rural Recovery Task Force and Rural Recovery Fund, which helped to rebuild 1,022 homes, businesses and churches, and helped farmers and fishers to recover.
In 2025 SMHA completed the smooth transition of Teche Ridge, A Master Planned Community to the next steps in the $150 million Development in Iberia Parish.
SMHA was awarded the NeighborWorks® “Rural Initiative Partnership Award”
SMHA’s Executive Director received the Jewish Funds for Justice Women of Valor Award, the 1st non-Jewish woman ever to receive it
SMHA’s Executive Director was one of the first women to receive the Woodmen of the World Outstanding Citizen Award
SMHA’s Executive Director awarded the Rural LISC Pioneer in Excellence Award
SMHA was awarded The National Community Reinvestment Coalition National Achievement Award
SMHA was awarded The Independent Sector Leadership Award
SMHA was one of ten nonprofits in America to receive the Fannie Mae Foundation Award for Sustained Excellence over a 10 year period
Lorna was also honored as a St. Joseph Academy Alumna of the Year
2010-Present Leading SMHA’s Rebuilding of One-Third of the City of New Iberia in Partnership with The City and a Private Philanthropist
2005-2011 Led SMHA’s Rural Recovery Response, Raising $10.5 Million from Non-Governmental Sources and Rebuilding Over 1,050 Homes, Businesses and Churches in 120 Rural Communities.
2005 Created a $100 Million Private Secondary Market with IBERIABANK to Buy SMHA’s CDFI Mortgage Loans.
2003-2005 Louisiana Commissioner on the Midsouth Commission to Build Philanthropy
2001-2005 Co-Founder and President – SEACorp (Sustained Excellence Alliance Corporation – a national practitioner-driven community development not-for-profit that develops innovative financial products and learning agendas)
1999 Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at the Harvard J. F. Kennedy School of Government – Senior Executives Program
1999 Fannie Mae Foundation James A. Johnson Community Development Fellowship – Inaugural Class
1999-Present Co-Founder and Treasurer- Southern Mutual Financial Services, Inc. – A Certified Community Development Financial Institution
1969-Present Co-Founder, Executive Director and President – Southern Mutual Help Association, Inc. – A rural community development Louisiana not-for-profit corporation
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