Barby Grant founded her own communications consulting business in July 2009 after retiring from Arizona State University, where she was employed for 23 years in various communication and marketing roles. Most recently she directed strategic communication and marketing efforts for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the largest and most diverse college at ASU. She was a member of the college’s executive team and led a staff responsible for marketing, print and online communication, branding and graphic design.
Before joining the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Barby managed communication for the university's development program and the ASU Campaign for Leadership, which attracted $522 million in private investment to the university between 1995 and 2001. She previously worked in the College of Business (now W.P. Carey School of Business), where she helped develop ASU's first four-color alumni magazine and many other publications.
Barby was a public information officer and journalist in New Mexico prior to her career in higher education. She worked for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department in Santa Fe and the Ruidoso News in Ruidoso, N.M.
Barby’s academic credentials include a bachelor's degree in English from Carson-Newman College in Tennessee and a Master of Mass Communication degree from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
She is a longtime member of the International Association of Business Communicators and a former officer of the Phoenix chapter. She won the 2010 Jake Wittmer Award for research and a Gold Quill Award of Excellence for marketing communication. She has previously won multiple awards for print materials and publications as well as the Chapter Management Award for Excellence in Membership Marketing.
