Kara Medoff Barnett

Kara Medoff Barnett was appointed Executive Director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in February 2016 following nearly 9 years as a senior executive at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. ABT is America’s National Ballet Company.

During her tenure at Lincoln Center, Kara served as Director of Strategy and Business Development and Senior Director of the Capital Campaign for the transformative redevelopment of Lincoln Center’s iconic 16-acre campus. In 2012, Kara became the founding Managing Director of Lincoln Center International (LCI), established to extend Lincoln Center’s brand, develop new sources of earned and contributed revenue, and expand Lincoln Center’s mission of bringing the best of the performing arts to the broadest possible audience worldwide. LCI draws on Lincoln Center’s expertise in operating the world’s largest and most vibrant arts center to facilitate artistic exchange and to advise government leaders, philanthropists, and developers on the planning and management of ambitious cultural infrastructure projects around the globe. Under Kara’s leadership, LCI launched the Lincoln Center Global Exchange, an annual conference for international leaders and change agents to advance the role of art and culture in addressing critical challenges facing our collective future.

Kara has produced plays on and off Broadway, and she received a Tony Award for the 2003 Broadway revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Kara is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a 2015 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. In 2014, Kara was named “40 under 40” in Crain’s New York Business.  

‎Kara attended Duke University on a Trinity Scholarship, graduating summa cum laude, and received her MBA from Harvard Business School.