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 is a board member (and former chair) of The Communications Network.

Prior to his work at the Foundation, Stefan managed executive education programs on strategy for the Palladium Group. At the nonprofit Project for School Innovation, he worked with public school educators to research, document, share, and replicate effective practices. Stefan began his working career in professional theatre, scouting and developing new plays for Stamford Theatre Works, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and then 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. In 2021 and 2022, Stefan served as a US Fulbright Scholar to Lusaka, Zambia.