Barbara Kerr, Ph. D.

Barbara Kerr, Ph.D. is co-founder of the Lawrence Creates Makerspace. She is a developer with the Brain Hacking team that uses EEG hardware and apps to create visual displays of people’s brains on creativity. She holds an endowed chair as Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology, and directs a laboratory for the study of creativity. Her research has focused on the development of talent and creativity. She directed research projects for the National Science Foundation for fifteen years that focused on women, science, and innovation. At KU, she founded the first laboratory for the study of the creative adolescents and adults, where over one thousand young people have received career guidance and therapy. She is the author of Smart Girls in the Twenty-First Century Gifted, a best-seller in education; Smart Boys; the Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Talent, and Creativit; and over a hundred other scholarly works in the her area. She is an American Psychological Association Fellow, and was named one of the twenty-five most influential psychologists in the study of intelligence and creativity by APA.