About Marsha Harper

Marsha Harper is an Executive Recruiter in the Nonprofit Practice at ThinkingAhead Executive Search, specializing in leadership searches across sports, education, and social justice organizations. She partners with mission-driven institutions to identify leaders who strengthen culture, expand opportunity, and drive meaningful impact. 

Before joining ThinkingAhead, Marsha spent more than twelve years in Division I collegiate athletics, serving as both an assistant and head coach across six Division I universities. Throughout her career she recruited, trained, and developed dozens of Division I student-athletes while building programs centered on leadership development, academic success, and civic engagement. That experience evaluating talent and developing high-performance environments now informs her work in executive search. 

Marsha’s career has consistently lived at the intersection of sports, education, and social equity. Those experiences have shaped her perspective on leadership and systemic organizational impact. She has served in national leadership roles including as a vice chair, commission member, panelist, and speaker on issues related to leadership, representation, equity, and the role of sport in education and society. 

A former scholarship soccer player at the University of Florida, she later earned both her Bachelor’s degree in Leadership Studies and Master’s degree in Exercise Science from the University of South Florida. She is based in Maryland and brings the same competitive drive that shaped her athletic career to her work in executive search.