Barbra Bearden – Senior Consultant
Barbra Bearden is a strategic thinker and engaging communicator with extensive experience as a consultant with federal agencies, NGOs, the private sector, foreign governments, international and community-based organizations. Barbra’s 15-year career includes significant experience in six countries — working across technical sectors and with development professionals to design communications campaigns and activities that promote innovation, learning, and sharing of successes.
At Powell Strategies, Barbra supports the Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Chief Strategy Office. She provides a full range of communication and management services, including creative planning, new program/product research, writing, and managing client communications, promotions, and public relations.
Barbra’s core expertise is in strategic communication, co-creation, user-focused design, and event planning. She provides end-to-end services generating ideas for communication products with technical experts using a Human-Centered Design process and packaging crafted messages for digital dissemination aligned with key milestones and events. She facilitates multi-day workshops focused on strategic communication and innovation, including as part of USAID’s Broad Agency Announcement process. Barbra also manages large conferences including calls for proposals, development of the event themes and agenda, participant recruitment, speaker coordination, and vendor management.
Barbra holds a certification in Project Management for Development Professionals (PMD Pro) and manages an efficient process to consistently produce attractive and timely communications materials using digital tools.
She has a Master of Arts in International Communication from American University and a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Communication.
In her spare time, Barbra is an avid cyclist, gardener, and home cook. She is an enthusiastic and adventurous traveler with a passion for cross-cultural exchange.
