{"id":120224,"date":"2025-07-14T16:37:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=120224"},"modified":"2025-07-14T16:37:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:37:25","slug":"dr-kito-barrow-empowering-tomorrows-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/dr-kito-barrow-empowering-tomorrows-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Kito Barrow: Empowering Tomorrow\u2019s Researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY ISABEL NELSON<\/p>\n

The next generation of research scientists has unique challenges ahead of it, but those future researchers also have dedicated, driven instructors in their corner. Associate professor Kito Barrow, Ph.D., has a passion for research, something she is eager to inspire in her undergraduate students.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Barbados, Dr. Barrow moved to the United States for her college education, but her journey with science started earlier. Both of Dr. Barrow\u2019s parents held science degrees, and she credits them with a lot of her confidence in male-dominated STEM spaces. Her sister, an environmental engineer, felt similarly uplifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the importance of science ingrained in us from a young age,\u201d Dr. Barrow says, \u201cand it gave us the strength to say, \u2018I\u2019m going to do this work regardless of what you think.\u2019\u201d She moved to Texas, where she completed her B.S. in biology and M.S. in biotechnology. Her Ph.D. culminated in a dissertation focused on prostate cancer intervention.<\/p>\n

When the institute where Dr. Barrow was teaching pharmacology became a part of The Chicago School, she also began teaching as an adjunct instructor in the M.S. Clinical Psychopharmacology program. Dr. Barrow\u2019s introduction to a new playground for instruction and research only deepened her desire to expose undergraduate students to what science can be.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Barrow, when undergraduate students think of research, they often don\u2019t think of their own lab work as being relevant. Limited funding in higher education often means undergraduates learn through closed-ended, rote experiments with limited applications\u2014did you add the drops, and did the solution turn blue?\u2014but that\u2019s not representative of what real research looks like, Dr. Barrow says.<\/p>\n

She wants to give students more chances to make an impact with their research. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have a Ph.D. to start,\u201d Dr. Barrow says, \u201cYou just have to have an idea, then go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, she and Jonathan Dodrill, Ph.D., dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies, have applied for a grant to expand the funding for biomedical research at The Chicago School. The funding would allow for the implementation of more CURE (Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience) classes and offer opportunities for weekend residencies at on-ground campuses where students can do real research in their laboratories. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to do an experiment in your kitchen or to do a simulation online,\u201d Dr. Barrow says, \u201cbut you can\u2019t ever replace doing that in a real lab environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Barrow wants her undergraduate students to know their voices matter. She believes an expansive approach to research, featuring voices from all walks of life, is critical for improving the field. \u201cIf we have a lot of different people working on something, maybe we will be able to fix something,\u201d Dr. Barrow says. It\u2019s why she\u2019s excited to see how The Chicago School continues to grow. \u201cThere can always be better methods, more efficient ones,\u201d she says. Successful research might take combining ideas from multiple places, but above all it will come down to a willingness to keep trying. It\u2019s right there in the name, Dr. Barrow says: \u201cYou search, and then you do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ISABEL NELSON The next generation of research scientists has unique challenges ahead of it, but those future researchers also have dedicated, driven instructors in their corner. Associate professor Kito Barrow, Ph.D., has a passion for research, something she is eager to inspire in her undergraduate students. Born and raised in Barbados, Dr. Barrow moved to the United States for her college education, but her journey with science started earlier. Both of Dr. Barrow\u2019s parents held science degrees, and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":120226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,113],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-120224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-magazine","category-psychology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Kito Barrow: Empowering Tomorrow\u2019s Researchers - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By making research accessible, Kito Barrow, Ph.D., is helping students see themselves as real scientists\u2014even before they graduate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/dr-kito-barrow-empowering-tomorrows-researchers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Kito Barrow: Empowering Tomorrow\u2019s Researchers - 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