Stefan Lanfer

Stefan Lanfer provides 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 on the board of Philanthropy Massachusetts and is a former board member (and chair) of The Communications Network.

Prior to Barr, Stefan managed executive education programs on strategy for the Palladium Group, and he worked with public school educators to document and share effective practices with the nonprofit Project for School Innovation. Stefan began his career in professional theatre, scouting for, and developing new plays, and his creative storytelling outlets include playwriting and songwriting.

Stefan holds an M.B.A. from MIT and a BA from Dartmouth College. In 2021 and 2022, Stefan served as a US Fulbright Scholar to Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka, Zambia, where he taught a course on advertising and helped produce news programming for the college radio station, HoneFM.