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  Faculty: Mary Alicia Barnes

Mary Alicia Barnes, OTR
Tufts University
Fieldwork Coordinator

Ms. Barnes coordinates and develops fieldwork placements and assists in the teaching of group practice, fieldwork seminars, and practicum elective. Her interests include: innovative models of fieldwork education, interdisciplinary collaboration in the provision of psychiatric services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance, pet therapy, and school/community based practice. She has published in the areas of clinical education, occupational therapy in child and adolescent psychiatry, group practice, and community based roles for occupational therapy.

Areas of personal interest:
I really value spending time with my family, close friends and extended family. I also feel it is important to stay active, so I try to keep to a workout routine and whenever possible, spend time with my family outdoors-biking, going for walks, or camping. My quieter pursuits are reading mysteries or going to flea markets on Cape Cod with my husband and daughter.

How I came to Tufts:
I was a Tufts undergrad who transferred into BSOT as a junior, graduating in 2 years plus fieldwork. I had an enriching experience at Tufts, creating close connections for which I am grateful, with fellow students and faculty, some of which exist to this day! Ironically, I started my career under the wonderful supervision of Robin Baker, a Tufts-BSOT alum, working in child psychiatry at Gaebler Children's Center. While there, I trained a number of Tufts students and my Gaebler occupational therapy colleagues and I developed the part-time Level II academic fieldwork model in collaboration with my colleague and mentor, Ellen Cohn, who was the Tufts academic fieldwork coordinator at the time (Adelstein, L.A., Cohn, E.C., Baker, R.C. & Barnes, M.A. (1990). A part-time level II fieldwork program. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 44, 60-65). My collaboration with Tufts continued through the ensuing years as my career path brought me to McLean Hospital where I worked as Rehab Supervisor for the Child and Adolescent Program and continued to train Tufts students. Serendipity led me back to Tufts-BSOT, working as a fieldwork coordinator part-time, while also working as a service contract occupational therapist for the Cambridge Public Schools, and then on the adolescent psychiatry unit at UMASS Westborough. I enjoy the full time fieldwork coordinator role I currently hold at Tufts. Over the past 10 years I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of colleagues at Tufts and within the occupational therapy profession as fellow team members, a co-author or co-presenter at conferences, collaborating on research projects, and here at Tufts, as part of the Tufts-BSOT staff/faculty group. I especially enjoy the role I have in co-leading mentoring groups for students in Group Theory and Community Based Practice and co-facilitating Fieldwork, as well as, Practicum Seminars. I love the collaborative process of learning that occurs with my colleagues and the students. I am excited to have a role in helping to support the development of the future generations of occupational therapy practitioners and leaders.

Learn more about Mary Barnes.

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