Betsy Barefoot is a native of North Carolina. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Duke University and Master's and Doctoral Degrees in Higher Education from the College of William and Mary. Currently, Dr. Barefoot serves as Co-Director and Senior Scholar for the Policy Center on the First Year of College in Brevard, North Carolina. The Center was founded in 1999 with a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and has also received grants from the Atlantic Philanthropies, Lumina Foundation for Education, USA Funds, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. In her work at the Policy Center, Dr. Barefoot is directly involved in the development of instruments and strategies to evaluate and improve the first college year. In addition, she conducts seminars on the first-year experience across the United States and in other countries and assists other colleges and universities in implementing and evaluating first-year programs.

Prior to assuming this position in 1999, Dr. Barefoot served for 11 years as Co-Director for Research and Publications in the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina. In this position, she engaged in ongoing research on first-year programming in American higher education and co-edited a number of publications including the Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, the First-Year Experience Newsletter, and a series of single-topic monographs. While at the University of South Carolina, Dr. Barefoot also served as a clinical faculty member in the University of South Carolina's College of Education and taught graduate courses in Principles of College Teaching, Contemporary Trends and Issues in Higher Education, a special topics seminar on The First-Year Experience, as well as the University 101 first-year seminar. She was also involved in acquiring grant funds, designing, and implementing a campus-wide program to provide training in methods of college teaching for graduate teaching assistants at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Barefoot has also authored and co-authored a number of publications including the 2005 Jossey-Bass books, Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First Year of College, and Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for the First Year of College. Dr. Barefoot continues her interest in music as an occasional vocal performer, pianist, and church organist. She is married to another scholar of the first-year experience, John N. Gardner. The “BGs,” as they are known in their neighborhood, reside in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina.

To contact Betsy, please email her at barefoot@fyfoundations.org.