Full Circle (Episode 33)

Karen Frank Barney, an occupational therapist with over 50 years of experience in practice and higher education, is the guest on this episode entitled "Full Circle" because Dr. Barney was one of the OT educators who taught Stephanie Lancaster, the host of this podcast, when Stephanie was in OT school. Dr. Barney has worked in a variety of medical and community settings in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri, and Guatemala, providing direct aging system services and consultation. She has taught in university settings for 38 years, served as primary faculty for the aging-related courses in three university programs, and served as the occupational therapy discipline expert for the Geriatric Education Center (GEC) at Saint Louis University for 22 years. She is the Founder of the Transformative Justice Initiative at Saint Louis University, currently working with justice systems to improve processes, programs, policies and outcomes. On this episode, Dr. Barney looks back at the start of her career into the field of OT and recounts about her experiences across different settings including academia. She shares about her work with the Transformative Justice Initiative as well as her passion for social justice and servant leadership.