Episode 33: Full Circle

Karen Frank Barney, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, an occupational therapist with over 50 years of experience in practice and higher education, is the guest on this episode entitled "Full Circle" because Dr. Barney was one of the OT educators who taught Stephanie Lancaster, the host of this podcast, when Stephanie was in OT school. Dr. Barney received her Bachelor's of Science in OT and an MS in Adult Education degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her PhD from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health in Health Services Research. 

​Dr. Barney has worked in a variety of medical and community settings in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri, and Guatemala, providing direct aging system services and consultation. She has taught in university settings for 38 years, served as primary faculty for the aging-related courses in three university programs, and served as the occupational therapy discipline expert for the Geriatric Education Center (GEC) at Saint Louis University for 22 years. She is the Founder of the Transformative Justice Initiative at Saint Louis University, currently working with justice systems to improve processes, programs, policies and outcomes.

On this episode, Dr. Barney looks back at the start of her career into the field of OT and recounts about her experiences across different settings including academia. She shares about her work with the Transformative Justice Initiative as well as her passion for social justice and servant leadership.

"We have to involve the people with whom we're doing [our] work." ~Karen Barney

Resources & Recommendations from the Episode:

• Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in Challenging Times [book] by Paul Rogat Loeb - describes how ordinary citizens can make their voices heard and their actions count in a time when they often feel neither matter. Explores what leads some people to get involved in larger community issues while others feel overwhelmed or uncertain; what it takes to maintain commitment for the long haul; and how community involvement and citizen activism can give back a powerful sense of connection and purpose.
• Robert Greenleaf's tenets of servant leadership
• Serial Crime as Occupation: Parallels Between Occupational Analysis and Psychological Profiling [article] by Karen Barney and Chetna Sethi