Laura Barrett is the IAIMS Project Coordinator, a position she has held since 1996, when the University received an IAIMS Planning Grant from the National Library of Medicine. UMDNJ went on to receive a $2.5 million, five year NLM IAIMS Operational Phase Grant in May 2002, to implement the Information Technology Strategic Plan developed during the planning process. Ms. Barrett was a member of the University-wide IAIMS Pre-Planning Group that developed the original Planning Grant, and was among the authors of the IAIMS Operational Phase Grant. She reports to the Informatics Institute Director, Dr. William J. Welsh, who is also the Co-PI of the IAIMS Grant.

In addition to her responsibilities for overall IAIMS Project coordination and reporting, Ms. Barrett serves as Chair of the Educational Technology Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the University-wide Academic Information Technology Advisory Committee. Committee-related duties include oversight of the faculty educational technology minigrant program, which is jointly funded by the IAIMS Grant and the Foundation of UMDNJ, and the faculty development program that is a key goal of the IAIMS grant. As Secretary of the IAIMS Consortium, Ms. Barrett works on Consortium annual meeting planning, in which representatives of UMDNJ’s IAIMS Project have been active participants.

Ms. Barrett’s educational background includes an A. B. degree, Cum Laude, from Bucknell University, where her studies included Biology, Organic Chemistry and Calculus; an M.L.S. degree from Rutgers University; courses in programming languages at the CUNY Graduate Center; medical literature and librarianship coursework at Columbia University; and courses in the UMDNJ-School of Health Related Professions graduate program in Biomedical Informatics. She participated in the AAMC Management Education Program on Information Technology in the Academic Medical Center, the Stanford University Medical School Medical Informatics Short Course, and was a Medical Informatics MBL/NLM Course Fellow.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Barrett was the Managing Librarian of the Media and Microcomputer Center, UMDNJ-George F. Smith Library of the Health Sciences. She was an Adjunct Faculty member for a number of years in the Rutgers University School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, and is a Distinguished Member of the Medical Library Association Academy of Health Information Professionals.