Stephanie Barksdale

Adjunct Lecturer - Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SISE)

Stephanie Barksdale came to coaching after years of practicing its core skills, deep listening, sharp questioning, helping others see clearly, across three very different worlds. For over a decade, she served as a strategic advisor to a diplomat, working inside institutional power and learning how high-stakes decisions get made. Alongside Tulane President Emeritus Scott Cowen, she then helped build Tulane's Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Program, work that grew into the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking, and she was a founding team member of Grow Dat Youth Farm. That work taught her that meaningful change depends on coalition, timing, and a willingness to move before every piece is in place. As a philanthropist and major donor in New Orleans, she also invested in people long before outcomes were certain, which shaped how she thinks about leadership and risk.

Today, Stephanie coordinates the coaching program at the Tulane University Leadership Institute (TULI), teaches in Tulane's SISE minor, and runs her own coaching practice, Sparking Insights LLC, working with mission-driven leaders, social entrepreneurs, and changemakers to turn vision into action. Her coaching draws on deep listening, direct dialogue, and a disciplined process for surfacing the patterns that keep capable leaders stuck — combining design thinking, equity-centered frameworks, and cross-sector experience across nonprofit, philanthropic, and higher-education settings.

Her approach rests on a simple conviction: real change rarely comes with a green light. After years building institutions from the inside, she saw how often good ideas stall out waiting for permission that never fully arrives — and now helps leaders find the clarity and courage to move forward before the path is completely visible. Her focus areas include mission-driven leadership, social entrepreneurship, decision-making under uncertainty, equity-centered leadership, and leadership transitions.

Stephanie holds the ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential, a Tulane University Leadership Institute Certified Leadership and Resiliency Coach certification, and a VISIONS Inc. Anti-Racism Resource Consultant certification. She is a trained YPO Forum Moderator and a graduate of the Campaign for an Equitable New Orleans Race and Equity Training. She serves on the advisory board of the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives and is joining the board of the Committee for a Better New Orleans (CBNO), continuing a long record of civic and philanthropic involvement in New Orleans. She holds a Master of Public Administration from NYU's Wagner School of Public Service and a Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College. In 2019 she was named Tulane's Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2011, CityBusiness Woman of the Year. She has logged more than 2,500 coaching hours, with clients including Tulane deans, faculty, and students; Loyola University's Women's Leadership Academy; Propeller; Idea Village; Trepwise; and a wide range of career changers, artists, and entrepreneurs.

Outside of work, she is a wife and mother of three boys who practices meditation and yoga and finds creative outlets in drawing and costume design.