Barbara Richter has led strategic initiatives across industries, government entities, and on behalf of non-profits. Most recently serving as CEO of the GreenHill Center for North Carolina Art, Barbara’s programmatic innovations and inventive approaches to community-building catalyzed unprecedented growth in audience engagement (600%) and exceptional philanthropic support.
Public art initiatives, comprehensive digital catalogs, and reimagined platforms for arts education connected GreenHill to increasingly diverse enthusiasts across the state and beyond. Creative approaches to donor cultivation and prestigious first-time collaborations encompassed wide-ranging entities such as the North Carolina Arts Council, HondaJet, Mercedes Benz, the Truist Foundation, and Unifi Corporation.
Barbara’s non-profit focus has been on arts organizations undergoing transformational change. Examples include her role as Director of Strategic Planning for Ingenuity Cleveland, an annual festival for the arts, science and technology, drawing 40,000 visitors, and her leadership of the “Spectrum” campaign to commemorate the newly completed campus of the Cleveland Institute of Art and related milestones through multi-media marketing, strategic messaging, and community-wide, profile-enhancing celebrations.
On behalf of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, based in Washington, DC, Barbara created outreach initiatives and community partnerships in Philadelphia and Cleveland to expand the footprint of the museum, increase brand awareness, boost membership, and generate funding, including corporate partnerships with Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bank of America, and Glenmede Trust.
In this capacity, Barbara also launched and managed the Ohio Advisory Group (OAG), a non-profit affiliate of the national Women’s Museum, which extends the museum’s mission through statewide programming and exhibitions that advocate for equity and shine a light on excellence in the arts. The OAG earned the support of prestigious entities such as National Public Radio, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Cleveland Foundation, in addition to building successful partnerships with many of Ohio’s premier museums and universities.  
At BMW, Barbara pioneered communications and corporate citizenship strategies to reposition the company as a full-fledged manufacturing concern in North America. Her responsibilities encompassed corporate communications, investor relations, public relations, and philanthropy.
Supported by the Council on Foreign Relations and informed by her work for Germany’s leading television networks, Barbara’s strategic counseling for the U.S. Department of State focused on communications strategies toward Europe and Germany in particular.
Barbara earned a BA at Boston College, an MSFS at Georgetown University, and a PhD at the University of Cologne.