Tammy Barry

Tammy Barry began serving as the Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education on July 1, 2022. In this role, she oversees the many functions of the Graduate School; heads the Graduate School leadership team in providing academic services to applicants, students, and graduate programs; engages and collaborates with academic leadership systemwide as well as other stakeholders in graduate education; and makes recommendations for WSU’s administrative and supportive services. Dr. Barry’s charge is to create a vision for dynamic growth and excellence in WSU’s graduate education programs that cultivates an environment promoting the academic success, professional development, and personal development of all graduate students.

She first joined the Graduate School as associate dean in November 2019, with responsibilities that included overseeing the Graduate School function of program assessment and review, representing the Graduate School on the Committee on Institutional Accreditation and Program Assessment, and working with the Provost’s office to meet the needs of institutional accreditation processes, among other duties.

Dr. Barry is also a professor in the Department of Psychology, where she served as the director of the clinical psychology doctoral program from fall 2015 to summer 2020. Her research focuses on biologically-based and contextual correlates of child externalizing behaviors, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), aggression, and disruptive behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder.

She has a B.A in communication from The University of Alabama, B.S. in psychology from The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The University of Alabama. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, followed by an NIH-funded post-doctoral research position in the Department of Psychology at The University of Alabama. She was licensed as a psychologist in 2001. Before joining the faculty at WSU, Dr. Barry was an adjunct professor at The University of Alabama and interim director of their autism clinic, a visiting assistant professor at The University of Louisville, a tenure-track assistant professor at Texas A&M University, and a tenured associate professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, where she also served as the director of the clinical psychology doctoral program.