Belle Cantor
She/Her/Hers
Senior Program Officer, Education
Metro Portland
Community Impact
bcantor@oregoncf.org
(503) 944-2136
In her role as OCF's program officer for education, Belle leads many of our investments on improving educational success and closing the opportunity gap. Her portfolio (chiefly focused on middle school through postsecondary) is largely concentrated on the Foundation’s K-12 Student Success: Out-of-School Time initiative, CTE-STEM investments, and Access and Success efforts in postsecondary education (including overseeing our $10 million scholarship program). Belle also oversees several community-based grant programs.
Prior to OCF, Belle was the program director at the American Indian Education Foundation, focusing on drop-out prevention and a college scholarship and mentoring program that boasted one of the highest retention rates in the country. Belle has worked internationally in East and South Asia and in Eastern Europe, worked nationally on environmental fellowship and rural youth development programs, and sat on the board of several nonprofits.
Belle received a bachelor’s in international development from Antioch College and a master's in sustainable development from the School for International Training.
"Teaching is not filling up a pail, it is lighting a fire."
William Butler Yeats