Biographical Notes
Professor Barker has been teaching at ENC since 2000, and began full-time in 2002. She has social work experience with the Department of Social Services in Kansas City, MO, as counselor and case manager in a residential program for pregnant and parenting teens in Biddeford, ME, and as an adoption homestudy caseworker in southern Maine. She is licensed as an independent clinical social worker (LICSW) in Massachusetts, and she completed her Ph.D. in social welfare at the Mandel School of Applied Social Science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH in 2008. Her research interests center around the integration of spirituality and social work. She is a 2005 recipient of ENC's Teaching Excellence Award, and a 2010 recipient of ENC's Professional Achievement Award.
At ENC, Professor Barker is faculty advisor to the Student Association of Social Workers. She has served in the past as advisor to the Students for Social Justice. She currently serves on the Multicultural Affairs Committee and the Instructional and Professional Development Committee. She is co-director of ENC's Center for Responsibility and Justice.
In the community, Professor Barker served on the board of the Esther R. Sanger Center for Compassion, Inc. and the Advisory Committee for Domestic Violence Ended (DOVE), Inc. Professionally, Professor Barker is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the North American Association of Christians in Social Work, the Council on Social Work Education, and the Association for Baccalaureate Program Directors.
Professor Barker lives in Quincy with her husband, Jeff, who is an ENC religion professor and pastor at Bethel (Quincy) Church of the Nazarene, and their two daughters, Emily and Abigail.
Education
Ph.D., Mandel School of Applied Social Science at Case Western Reserve University
MSW, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Social Work
BA in Social Work, Eastern Nazarene College
