Web Bio

Dr. Carolyn Barcus has served as Director of the American Indian Support Project (AISP) in the Psychology Department at Utah State University since 1991 and was Assistant Director for the five years previous to that time. In the twenty years of the AIS Project, which Dr. Barcus was instrumental in developing, 32 American Indian students have attained MS in School Psychology or PhD in Professional-Scientific Psychology degrees, and five students are currently working on graduate degrees in psychology. This makes Utah State University a leader in the field of training American Indian psychologists. These graduates return to Native communities where they provide much needed psychological services, as well as serving as successful role models. In addition to her recruitment and retention efforts, Dr. Barcus and the AISP students host an annual convention in cooperation withthe Society of Indian Psychologists. The nineteenth Annual Convention of American Indian Psychologists and Psychology Graduate Students and the Bear Lake Retreat was held in June, 2006, and preparations for the twentieth Convention are currently underway.. This convention hosts the Society of Indian Psychologists business meeting. Dr. Barcus is a past President of the Society of Indian Psychologists.

Dr. Barcus is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Northern Montana and was raised on the Blackfeet Reservation. Her Blackfeet name is Bear Woman. Dr. Barcus has spent the past twenty four years of her career in service to American Indian people. Future career goals include enhancing the networking and mentoring of American Indian graduate students in psychology across the nation, facilitating the development of American Indian psychology as a science, and raising Tennessee Walking Horses when she retires, which is planned for Spring of 2007.