Pronouns: She/Her

Degrees:

• Ed.D., Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, Harvard University;
• M.Ed, Ed.D, Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, Harvard University;
• M.S., Mass Communication, Boston University;
• B.S. English/Education, Boston College

Biography:

As the founding chair of the communication department, Dr. Barrett developed the University's undergraduate and graduate degree programs in communication. In May 2018, she was the recipient of the Thomas E.J. de Witt Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership.

Previously, before joining the Lasell faculty, for ten years she was an associate professor at Boston University's College of Communication, and founding director of “Communication, Conflict and the Media,” the Boston University summer program in Dublin, Ireland.  Dr. Barrett has taught several graduate courses, including Communication Strategies for Conflict Resolution and Negotiations, Crisis Communication, Intercultural Communication, Writing for the Media, Contemporary Mass Media, Media Relations, and Organizational Communication. Her research interests focus on conflict resolution strategies and political communication. She has published her research in scholarly journals and presented her findings at several international communication conferences.

From 1997-1994, Dr. Barrett served as a founding educational co-chair with Professor Emeritus Marvin Kalb of the Institute on the Media and American Democracy at Harvard University. The institute, which was supported with an $825,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, was jointly sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Since 2001, Dr. Barrett has served on the Board of Judges for the Profiles in Courage essay of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. She is an active member, reviewer, presenter, and program planner for the Peace and Conflict Commission of the National Communication Association, and reviewer and presenter for the organizational communication, journalism, and political communication divisions of the International Communication Association. Previously, she was director of communication for two New England college presidents, and editor of numerous publications.

During the 2003-2004 academic year, Dr. Barrett was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Dublin City University in Ireland, where she taught in the graduate journalism program and conducted research focused on the media coverage of the conflict and peace process in Northern Ireland. She presented guest lectures at several Irish universities in the north and south, and also traveled throughout Europe to deliver lectures on her research.

Since 2004, Dr. Barrett has been invited each year to serve as one of only four peer reviewers nationwide who assess and recommend the Fulbright applications for Senior Scholar Fulbright Awards in Communication and Journalism. After her return from Ireland, she was appointed associate dean at Quinnipiac University, School of Communications in Hamden, CT.

Dr. Barrett earned her doctorate and master's degrees in Administration, Social Policy and Planning from Harvard University. She also holds a master's degree in mass communication from Boston University and a bachelor's degree in English/education from Boston College.