Stefan Lanfer

Stefan Lanfer provides strategic and tactical communications leadership for Barr in support of its mission and goals. A member of the Barr Foundation team since 2008, Stefan served in a variety of roles focused on strategy, knowledge management, and communications, until his appointment, in 2014, as the Foundation’s first communications director. Stefan’s writings on communications, philanthropy, and leadership have appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Communications Network’s Change Agent journal, and The Foundation Review. He serves as chair of the board of The Communications Network.

Prior to his work at the Foundation, Stefan managed executive education programs on strategy for the Palladium Group. Over three years at the nonprofit Project for School Innovation, he worked with public school educators to research, document, share, and replicate effective practices. He began his career in the theatre, scouting and developing new plays with the Stamford Theatre Works, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Long Wharf Theatre.

Stefan holds an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. He is also a playwright, a past president of the Playwrights’ Platform, and a 2015 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing.