Education
PhD, Harvard University, 2004
MPP, Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1999
BA, Drew University, 1992
Overview
Colleen L. Barry is the Fred and Julie Soper Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Barry's research focuses on how health and social policies can affect a range of outcomes for individuals with substance use and mental illness, including access to medical care and social services, care quality, health care spending, financial protection and mortality. In addition, she conducts empirical research to understand how communication strategies influence public attitudes about addiction, mental illness and violence. A focus of this work is to identify evidence-based approaches to reducing stigma. She also leads ongoing research to track national public opinion on policies aimed at reducing gun violence. Dr. Barry has led numerous large-scale research studies and her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund and Arnold Ventures. She has authored over 190 peer-reviewed publications on a range of health policy and public health topics in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law and the American Journal of Public Health.
Dr. Barry is the founding co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research and core faculty for the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. She co-directs the Johns Hopkins NIMH T32 Mental Health Services and Systems Training Grant providing pre- and post-doctoral fellowships to train scholars to become leaders in the mental health policy research field. She is co-Chair of the Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Barry was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2019. She served as board member and as vice president for the Association of Public Policy and Management (APPAM) from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Barry received her PhD in health policy from Harvard University in 2004 and her master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1999.
Honors and Awards
32nd John Krantz Jr. Research Day Distinguished Lecturer, University of the Sciences
Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society, Alpha Chapter, Johns Hopkins
Excellence in Teaching, Foundations in Health Policy Doctoral Seminar
Excellence in Teaching, Government and Health Policy
National Institute for Mental Health Training Fellowship
Summa Cum Laude
Robert Fisher Oxnam Prize