Biography

Kiki Baker Barnes is currently the Athletic Director at Dillard University, after serving in a dual role as the Head Women’s Basketball Coach for seven years. Appointed in 2006, Barnes was hired to revive the university’s athletic program after it was cancelled in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Prior to assuming her current role, she served the university as Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach since 2 During her tenure at Dillard, Barnes has successfully reestablished the men’s and women’s basketball programs and the women’s volleyball team. She has also established several new sports, including men’s and women’s track & field and men’s and women’s cross country. She has worked tirelessly to not only operate the teams, but to also increase their competitiveness, resulting in the first conference championships for the university since Katrina by the volleyball and men’s track & field teams in 2010.

Barnes established a comprehensive strategic plan for the athletics program, resulting in the university’s first athletics website and the establishment of the university’s first endowed athletic scholarship, the Billy Ray Hobley Scholarship Fund. Barnes also rebranded the annual home game against Dillard’s crosstown rivals as the Bleu Devil Classic. This event has become one of the main annual attractors of alumni to the university.

Understanding that branding is a key element to overall success, she spearheaded an effort to create a new athletics logo and designed a new look and name for Dillard’s venerable gymnasium, the “Battlefield.”

Barnes has not only rebuilt Dillard University Athletics, but also the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC). As the GCAC's first African - American and female president, Barnes was also charged with revamping the conference after half of its members departed, threatening the conference's existence in 2009. Barnes has successfully guided the effort to add four new members over the past two years to fully restoring the conference. Barnes has successfully guided the conference through rebranding efforts and establishing a formal bid and application process for conference tournaments. Barnes efforts were recognized by her peers when they voted her Athletic Director of the Year in 2011.

Barnes' rebuilding efforts do not hinder her from being active at the national level. Barnes is completing her third year as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Administrative Council. Barnes has also served the NAIA as a member of the committee on conduct in competition. Barnes was most recently named to an At-large position on the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) Board of Directors Strategic Planning Committee. Barnes holds memberships in the National Association for Collegiate Athletic Directors (NACDA), Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), and the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA).

Prior to her arrival at Dillard University, Barnes served as an assistant basketball coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Southern University at Baton Rouge and Frank Phillips College. She also served as head basketball coach and spirit coordinator at Southern University at Shreveport, where she led the team to its first ever winning season.

Barnes athletic experience greatly contributes to her proficient coaching abilities. She was a standout basketball player and track star for the University of New Orleans (UNO). She currently holds UNO's triple long jump record. Before being recruited by UNO, Barnes led the South Plains College Lady Texans Basketball Team to a 23-7 record while leading the team in steals and seconding in scoring.

Her educational background includes an associate's degree in telecommunication from South Plains College (1995), a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of New Orleans (1997), and a master's degree in communications with concentration in Public Relations from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2001). She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in educational administration at UNO.

Barnes is married to Marc Barnes, Sr. They have two children, Caitlin and Marc, Jr.