Stefan Lanfer

Stefan Lanfer provides strategic and tactical communications leadership for the Barr Foundation in support of its mission, which is to invest in human, natural, and creative potential, serving as thoughtful stewards and catalysts. Based in Boston, Barr focuses regionally, and selectively engages nationally to elevate the arts, advance solutions for climate change, and connect all students to success in high school and beyond. Prior to his 2014 appointment as Barr’s first director of communications, Stefan served the Foundation in a variety of roles focused on strategy, knowledge management, and communications. An active member of The Communications Network since 2010, he joined the Board in 2016.

Stefan’s writing on communications and philanthropy has appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Communications Network’s Change Agent journal, and The Foundation Review.

Before joining Barr in 2008, Stefan led executive education programs on strategy for the Palladium Group. Prior to that, over three years at the nonprofit Project for School Innovation, he worked with public-school educators to share effective practices. Stefan began his career in the theatre, scouting for new plays for 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 a playwright, a past president of the Playwrights’ Platform in Boston, and a 2015 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow in Dramatic Writing.