Jacqueline Barker, Ph.D., is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at the Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Barker completed her graduate training in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale University and postdoctoral training in the Department of Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina, focusing on neurocognitive function and substance use disorders.

Her lab investigates the neural circuits and molecular substrates regulating behavioral and cognitive flexibility and their dysregulation in disease states. To accomplish this, her work combines circuit- and cell-type specific approaches with novel pharmacological tools and animal models to assess acquired impairments following chronic drug and alcohol exposure. Her research is currently funded by NIAAA and NIDA and has been recognized by a number of awards, including the NIAAA Young Investigator Award (2020), the Drexel University Provost’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Productivity (2022), and the EDULedger Emerging Scholar Award (2026). Dr. Barker is also the founding Director of the Mentorship for Outstanding Trainee Outcomes in Research, focused on supporting established mentorship teams in attaining key benchmarks for trainees, including publication and attaining extramural funding. Trainees from her research group have received recognition of their work in multiple venues, including the receipt of NIAAA F31 fellowships, a NIDA Diversity Supplement, postdoctoral foundation fellowships, and research and travel awards from relevant research societies. Her mentorship has been recognized by the Drexel Early Career Mentoring Award for Basic Sciences.