Education

MS, Leisure Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998
BS, Program Management/Leisure Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996

Responsibilities

Barker has been at LER since 1999 and has responsibility over the domains of student and academics services for the on-campus MHRIR and Ph.D. programs, as well as new student recruitment and admissions and financial aid. In addition, she works with faculty on teaching assignments and is the department scheduler, responsible for all aspects of enrollment services at LER for the MHRIR, Ph.D. and GLS minor.

Barker is also responsible for on boarding all new students, including coordination of all advising and new student orientations, and is the School Commencement Coordinator, planning and executing convocation ceremonies in December and May.

In addition to her School responsibilities, she serves on the campus-wide subcommittee for undergraduate and graduate student conduct, is a leadership coach through the Illinois Leadership Center, and has been a past facilitator for the Petullo Insight Program (Illinois Leadership Center) and served on the CAPE Award Committee, Committee on Conduct Governance Committee, and the Graduate College Administrative Advisory Committee.

She regularly gives presentations about graduate school and LER to classrooms and student groups at Illinois and other universities and is actively involved in the National Association for Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP).

Experience

1998-1999—Retail Supervisor–Joint Venture with IUB and DIA to handle all athletic merchandising at U of I Athletic events
1996-1998 Graduate Assistant in Department of Leisure Studies, College of Applied Life Studies
10 years in the service industry prior to joining the university full-time which included managing the Illini Inn for three years