Barbara Pierce, PhD, LCSW

Barb Pierce grew up in inner city Philadelphia in a working class neighborhood. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson University School of Nursing and then St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia) with a BS. She graduated with the MSS (social work) and MLSP (law and social policy) from Bryn Mawr College and finally obtained the PHD from The Mandel School at Case Western Reserve University. She has been a clinical social worker for 35 years and has worked with children, youth, and families for whom trauma in its many forms has been the prevailing issue in their lives.

In 2000 she became a faculty member teaching social work to undergraduates in Louisiana and eventually clinical graduate students at the Indiana University School of Social Work. The focus of her work has been providing trauma-responsive education to clinical MSW students and bringing a trauma-responsive intervention via a design team sustainable community engaged participatory action approach. She is currently Associate Professor of Social Work at Indiana University working mainly with clinical MSW students and doctoral students.