About
As an associate professor, Director of Minerva, and Chief of The Bureau for Creative Culture, Mark Barry focuses on developing the next generation of creative professionals in advertising. His teaching centers on helping students gain the skills to transform insights into ideas that reward an audience for their time and attention. His research focuses on the environmental conditions, social dynamics, and leadership strategies used to build and sustain creative cultures.
He’s not afraid to venture outside Reese Phifer either. Barry takes a group of Minerva students to NYC for the One Club for Creativity’s Creative Week each summer and regularly jumps the pond for study abroad trips for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland and the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France.
He’s a regular guest lecturer in The University of Alabama’s Honors College and frequent presentation and culture consultant for competition case teams in The Culverhouse College of Business. He was the cofounder of Yonder Contemporary Dance Company and acted as the company’s creative director, leading the preprofessional student company on multiple regional and international tours.
In 2020, Barry received national recognition for his dedication to his students when he was awarded the Donald G. Hileman Award and named Educator of the Year in District 7 by the American Advertising Association. In 2024 he was awarded the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award from The University of Alabama National Alumni Association.
Impact Beyond the University
Barry has served on the Leadership Board for the American Advertising Federation and been a featured speaker at events throughout the southeast. After graduation, his students have gone on to work at top agencies from NYC to LA to Berlin, and work on some of the advertising industry’s most celebrated and awarded campaigns. Whether it was while scrolling your social feed, during a commercial break, or while you were watching the Super Bowl, you’ve likely seen their work.
Carefully Curating a Creative Culture
Barry asks his students to chase progress over perfection and accept failure is a necessary step in the creative process, and that meaningful creative work demands both tenacity and endurance. He challenges them to take responsibility for the learning half of the teacher/student relationship. He pushes them to relentlessly challenge and zealously support each other. By doing so, Barry creates environments where students feel connected to something bigger than themselves and at the same time, safe to experiment, fail, and grow as individuals.