Anna Barber is president and principal consultant for Barber & Associates, a boutique fundraising consulting firm focused on helping nonprofit organizations achieve their full fundraising potential.

Prior to starting her own business, Barber was a senior major gift officer for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) where she worked for more than eight years. She was part of NMAAHC's inaugural fundraising team that surpassed its $270 million private philanthropic goal by $50 million. Personally, Barber secured $42 million in leadership (more than $1 million) and major ($100 thousand) gift support, highlighted by the closure of 22 individual one million-dollar gifts, 90 percent contributed by first time donors to the Smithsonian. She also built and maintained a portfolio of high-profile celebrities, including Pauletta and Denzel Washington, LaTanya and Samuel L. Jackson, Magic and Cookie Johnson, Michael Jordon and Kobe Bryant, among many other national individual philanthropists. Leading into NMAAHC's Grand Opening in 2016, she led the efforts to host a $1M per plate fundraiser at the home of Denzel Washington and a mid-level fundraising event that generated $5 million from $25 thousand donors.

Prior to the Smithsonian, Barber spent 10 years working as a frontline fundraiser in big-time college athletics. She served as the director of major gifts for Michigan State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics where she was part of the team that successfully completed a $110 million capital campaign, which was part of a larger $1.2 billion university-wide campaign. In addition to fundraising, she oversaw the athletics department's endowment, planned giving and communication programs, and the led the fundraising team for the renovation of the university's baseball, softball, and soccer complexes.

Prior to working at MSU, Barber served as the assistant director of development at Miami University in Ohio where she participated in launching the athletics department's $30 million capital campaign, part of a university-wide $350 million campaign. She started her career at Arizona State University where she was mentored under the legendary athletics director Gene Smith.

She earned a Juris Doctorate (intellectual property) from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Howard University.