L. Kasimu Harris

Dillard University's most recent championships in volleyball and men's track were won with a poster. Kiki Baker Barnes, the university's athletic director, was tired of seeing promotional materials from a ring company with major colleges used in the sample pictures. So after the annual Student Athlete Leadership Training, where sports teams were already inspired from the dynamic speakers, Barnes gave everyone posters with Dillard University rings pictured.

"It was about making the vision plain for them," Barnes said. "And getting over the first hurdle of believing they could be champions." During the 2010-11 seasons those two teams earned the university its first championship since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Belief is paramount to Barnes, who's one of the few female athletic directors in America. Barnes, 36, a native of Minden, La., a place so small, her social networks were church, school and home that all helped her develop a strong work ethic and a deep faith in God.

"I thought I was going to be Oprah," she said, who graduated in 1997 from the University of New Orleans with a degree in communications, where she excelled in track and basketball. "But, God has his own plan and I just walk in it." Barnes wanted to return to the game, after an unsuccessful try-out with the Women's National Basketball Association in 1997. She got an opportunity as a graduate assistant for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette women's basketball team. Barnes worked nonstop for $4,500 a year and never complained.

"You have to work as if you're getting paid a million dollars, even if you're only getting paid $.15," she said. Despite her time constraints, Barnes earned a master's degree in communications with concentration in Public Relations. Then, at, 25, Barnes head coaching break came with Southern University at Shreveport, where she first aspired to be an athletic director. She led the team to its first winning season and oversaw all sports at the school (women's basketball, cheer and dance) except men's basketball. She didn't get title, but gained valuable experience.

In 2003, she stopped coaching and relocated to New Orleans start a doctoral degree in educational administration at UNO, a step in what she thought would be a long path to becoming an AD. Eventually, she became an assistant basketball coach and worked under Robin Martin, the first female AD at Dillard. It was the perfect situation for Barnes to gain experience, then Hurricane Katrina hit and she was laid off. Dillard rehired her in 2006 as head coach of women's basketball team and run the entire athletic department as AD.

"Dillard has been good to me, I met my husband here and they gave a young person an opportunity," Barnes, the mother of two, said.

Since taking the helm, Barnes has successfully reestablished the men's and women's basketball programs and the women's volleyball team and established men's and women's track & field and men's and women's cross country. She implemented strategic plan that has already yielded the school's sports first website, a scholarship endowment and increasing competitiveness and brand awareness. And her focus remains students.

Barnes said: "we're creating better people that will have an impact on society."

The Company:
View Website: Dillard University Athletics

Want to Support the Minority Report & Our Efforts? View the Media Kit
The Minority Report Publication, Website, & Sub Center Current Supporters:

Presented by:
First NBC Bank, The City of New Orleans, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Jones Walker Law Firm, HRI Properties, Hancock Bank/Whitney, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Gertler & Gertler Law Firm, CGI Security, EBONetworks Outreach, Dillard University, Planet Beach–Terrytown, Morris Reed, Jr. Law Firm, Organo Gold Distributors, Wisznia Developments, Demo Diva, The Boyd Family Funeral Home, and The Do-WAP.com Online Marketing Agency.

Supported by:
Council Members Offices:Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson (At-Large), Stacy Head (At-Large), Susan Guidry (A), Kristin Gisleson Palmer (C), Cynthia Hedge-Morrell (D), and Jon D. Johnson (E)

Sponsored by:
N.O. Chamber of Commerce, Black Chamber of New Orleans, Small Business Administration (SBA), Goodwork Network, Downtown Development District, Southern University of New Orleans, Urban League of GNO, First Bank & Trust, Three Fold Consulting, Calvin Mackie, PhD, Creative Concepts, Capital Access Project, Iberia Bank, Swanson Insurance, Cheffen Wilson Milton Foundation, Psychic Cari Roy, Louisiana Small Business Development Center, Ben Guillory - State Farm, Butler & Mordock Law Firm, Michael Jones CPA, The Williams Group, R&P Landscaping, Napolean Law Firm, and The Wellness Experience.