Ep168: Vanese Barnes Tufts Women’s Basketball Graduate Assistant
Women’s Sports Foundation VanDerveer Fellow 2023

May 16, 2024
Vanese Barnes joins Elizabeth Emery to talk about the NCAA Final Four weekend in Cleveland, the terrific Women’s Sports Foundation panel she was on, the Tara VanDerveer Fellowship, confidence, imposter syndrome, aggression, controlling emotions, her identity as a mixed-race woman, representation, women’s coaching now, burnout, and Dawn Staley.

Vanese is a 2023 Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer fellow with Tufts University Women’s Basketball team. At the same time Vanese was a part of a two-year Future Leaders Fellowship program at Tufts, where she earned her master's degree in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership within the Tufts Graduate School of Arts & Sciences in addition to her coaching duties. 

In 2019, Vanese earned a degree in elementary education at St. Joseph's College in Maine, where she was a member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference basketball championship team. She also played at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine and was captain of the team and selected as a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Academic All-American.

For four seasons after graduating from college, Vanese was an assistant coach for Southern Maine Community College, where she temporarily took over the lead role while the head coach was out on maternity leave. She was also a varsity assistant and the junior varsity head coach at Portland High School for a year. She has also participated in a number of professional development opportunities in recent years, including being a member of the Maine Women's Basketball Coaches Development Series since 2020.

Vanese Barnes on Twitter
Tufts University announced today it received a Tara VanDerveer Fund for the Advancement of Women in Coaching grant from the Women's Sports Foundation
Women’s Sports Foundation
Kendra Coleman (Ep164) talks about shy she prefers to work with a woman coach
Kristen Bourne (Ep142) is also a Tara VanDerveer Fellow
Jenny Nguyen (Ep140) founded The Sports Bra, the first women’s only sports bar.
Women’s Sports Fundation panel at Hawken during the Final Four weekend in Cleveland.
The four panelists were Danette Leighton (CEO Women’s Sports Foundation), Swin Cash (VP of Basketball Operations/Team Development at NBA team New Orleans Pelicans, 3x WNBA Champion), LaChina Robinson (ESPN & NBC commentator), and this week’s guest, Vanese Barnes.

Vanese recommended Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. Love that book! There are times where I’ll go back and read certain chapters just because it gives me that reset I need that I was talking about or it’s refreshing overall.
She also just ordered Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You by A’Ja Wislon
Order both on our Bookshop page.