Tammy D. Barry, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education

 

Dr. Tammy Barry began serving as Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education (formerly titled Graduate School dean) on July 1, 2022. In this role, she oversees the various functions of the Graduate School, engages and collaborates with academic leadership system-wide as well as other stakeholders in graduate and professional education, conducts research on national best practices in the administration of graduate and professional education, and makes recommendations for WSU’s administrative and supportive services. Dr. Barry’s charge is to create a vision for dynamic growth and excellence in WSU’s graduate and professional education programs that cultivates an environment promoting the academic success, professional development, and personal development of all graduate and professional students.

Dr. Barry first joined the Graduate School as associate dean in November 2019, with responsibilities that included overseeing the Graduate School function of program assessment and review, representing the Graduate School on the Committee on Institutional Accreditation and Program Assessment, and working with the Provost’s office to meet the needs of institutional accreditation processes, among other duties.

Research

Dr. Barry is a professor in the Department of Psychology, where she served as the director of the clinical psychology doctoral program from fall 2015 to summer 2020. Dr. Barry’s research focuses on biologically-based and contextual correlates of child externalizing behaviors, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), aggression, and disruptive behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder. Factors examined in Dr. Barry’s Child Externalizing Behaviors Lab include neuropsychological functioning/endophenotypes, child temperament, parental psychopathology/stress, parenting practices, SES/neighborhood characteristics, and individual difference factors—all from a developmental psychopathology perspective through both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. A second line of Dr. Barry’s research also focuses on the measurement and latent structure of externalizing behavior disorders, such as ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. Thus far, Dr. Barry has served as the committee chair and advisor for 24 doctoral students and has been a member of an additional 80 graduate student committees. She has also chaired 15 undergraduate theses and senior projects. Dr. Barry has published over 75 peer-reviewed papers and other scholarly works and has approximately 250 research conference presentations. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Department of Justice, and several private foundations.

Teaching

In recent years, Dr. Barry has focused primarily on graduate teaching, including a course on cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, and supervising doctoral students in their assessment practicum in the WSU Psychology Clinic. In the past, in addition to providing ongoing clinical supervision, Dr. Barry has taught graduate courses in both adult and child cognitive assessment, teaching of psychology, child psychopathology, and clinical neuropsychology. She also has taught undergraduate courses in general/introductory psychology, abnormal psychology, lifespan developmental psychology, personality, honors research forum, and honors thesis prospectus writing. For several years, she also provided GRE preparation for McNair Scholars during their summer institute.

Service

Dr. Barry has a long history of University service and leadership. Since beginning at WSU in 2015, Dr. Barry has served in numerous such roles, including the Faculty Senate and Faculty Senate Steering Committee. She has co-chaired the Faculty Senate’s Research and Arts Committee and two University-wide task forces. She also served as an elected member and Secretary on the national Board of Directors of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology, for which she was given a Distinguished Service Award. She has been recognized at WSU with an Exceptional Service Award from the Office of Research and an Institutional Service Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Education and Previous Positions

Dr. Barry has a B.A in communication from The University of Alabama, B.S. in psychology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The University of Alabama. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, followed by an NIH-funded post-doctoral research position in the Department of Psychology at The University of Alabama. She was licensed as a psychologist in 2001. Before joining the faculty at WSU, Dr. Barry was an adjunct professor at The University of Alabama and interim director of their autism clinic, a visiting assistant professor at The University of Louisville, a tenure-track assistant professor at Texas A&M University, and a tenured associate professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, where she also served as the director of the clinical psychology doctoral program.

Read the announcement for Dr. Barry’s position as Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education.