Oscar Barbarin

Oscar Anthony Barbarin is a clinical psychologist and academic whose research explores the effects of race and adversity on child development. His work focuses particularly on the development of Black boys and youth, identifying key risk and protective factors that influence their emotional, academic, and social well-being.

Barbarin received the 2015 Distinguished Contributions to Understanding International, Cultural, and Contextual Diversity in Child Development Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. He is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Education Barbarin earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and received training in Theology at Saint Joseph Seminary College. He went on to complete a Master of Arts in Counseling at New York University, followed by a Master of Science in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University.

Career Barbarin began his academic career as an assistant professor in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Maryland from 1974 to 1979. He then served in the Department of Psychology and the School of Social Work, where he advanced from assistant professor to professor between 1979 and 2000. From 2000 to 2009, he held the L. Richardson and Emily Preyer Distinguished Professorship at the University of North Carolina School of Social Work and was a fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center.

Barbarin served as chair of the U.S. National Committee for Psychology at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2010 and was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science in 2012. He then held the Lila L. and Douglas J. Hertz Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychology at Tulane University from 2009 to 2015. From 2015 to 2020, he was a professor of African American Studies and Psychology at the University of Maryland. 1991 – Special Service Award, American Orthopsychiatric Association