Dr. Barrett Bonella, LCSW, PhD

Professor
BSW Program Director

Office: Lindquist Hall Building - Room 326

Email: barrettbonella@weber.edu

Barrett Bonella, PhD, LCSW is a Professor of Social Work at Weber State University, where his classes are deeply rooted in social justice, aiming to end oppressive practices such as systemic racism and to increase equity and inclusion in diverse populations. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology and Spanish from Westminster College and completed his MSW and PhD in Social Work at the University of Utah.

Barrett grew up in an upper middle-class home in a part of Salt Lake City that bordered on West Valley, South Salt Lake, and Taylorsville. While his neighborhood was rich in diversity, many of his schools were predominantly White and rife with discrimination against minorities. His early experiences with conflict and racism in schooling shifted in high school, where he first learned that people from all backgrounds could coexist peacefully. He excelled academically for the first time in the 10th grade, realizing that simply completing homework could lead to straight A's. This realization, combined with his White, male, and religious privilege, fostered a belief that he could achieve great things, which often inflated his sense of ability throughout college and his early career.

Since 2001, Barrett gained a variety of professional experiences in the social work field including crisis counselor, psychiatric technician, clinical therapist, instructor, research assistant, community organizer, policy consultant, clinical supervisor, and clinical director. However, his overestimation of his capabilities led to challenges, particularly when he pushed a refugee service program to grow faster than he could manage, resulting in his dismissal. This humbling experience led him to return to practice as “just a therapist.” In doing so, he was privileged to find a wise mentor who subsequently reignited his passion for larger scale social work practice and gave him a more realistic self-assessment.

In 2013, Barrett secured a tenure-track position at Weber State University, despite what he thought was a failed interview. There, he teaches courses such as Introduction to Social Work; Social Welfare Policy History, Development, and Advocacy; Social Work Research; and Social Work Practice III: Macro Practice. His classes emphasize a social justice approach, aiming to dismantle systemic oppression and foster equity and inclusion.

Outside the classroom, Barrett serves as the Clinical Director for Youth Futures, a shelter for homeless youth. There he provides clinical services for youth experiencing homelessness and supervises recently licensed and intern therapists to do the same.  His research interests include mental health and criminal justice collaboration, program evaluation, community engagement practices, the use of power in shaping social movements, and deconstruction through autoethnograpy. Passionate about social movements, systems theory, social justice, harm reduction, the LGBTQ+ community, and anti-oppressive practices, Barrett strives to help students understand how they can read society as a set of malleable systems that can be changed with the right understanding and interventions.  Sometimes, it works.

Barrett credits much of his happiness and sanity to his spouse Giovanna and children Vinny, Trent, and Gabriel.