We Educate People About Education
Your Baby's Amazing Brain
​The exhibition, Your Baby’s Amazing Brain is a 48-foot, traveling, walk-thru, interactive mobile exhibition designed to showcase the importance of developing minds in babies, infants and toddlers from birth up to age 5.
Celebrate this beloved author's birthday with her most ardent MOTAL fans!
​
Tickets to this delightful occasion, a rare one indeed, are $50.00 a person and can be purchased online, by selecting "Purchase Tickets Here." 

If you prefer to mail in a check, please send your RSVP to [email protected] as soon as possible as we are sure that this celebration will be well attended!

What We Do

A Warm, Bright, Dedicated Scholar,
​and Mentor

Just months after her retirement from the University of Southern California, Dr. Concha Barrio, an emerita professor, passed away from a rare form of melanoma. She was the beloved wife of Fullerton’s Don Kinda. Concha is also survived by Miranda J. Kinda. Dr. Barrio’s life and career were devoted to caring for others. She was not only a devoted researcher and writer, but she was also a cherished and lauded mentor.​

On Giving Tuesday, The Museum of Teaching and Learning was surprised and honored to receive notification that MOTAL was one of the nonprofits named to receive a large donation from the Barrio retirement investment fund. MOTAL would like to share her narrative with you, for although it is Concha’s unique tale, it is also a very American story—one of overcoming difficulties through learning, persistence, and dedication.
Concha was the oldest of six children. When she was only ten years old, her father passed away, which caused the family to split up. She and one sister were sent to a Catholic boarding school for girl orphans in Texas. The family eventually got back together, and she finished public high school in El Paso. Then, with a scholarship, she immediately left for Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, where she got her BA degree, and then earned a Masters in Social Work. For a number of years, she had a private practice before she decided to get a PhD. She realized she wanted to teach in academia and remain in California for the rest of her life.​

However, even before her mother passed away, Concha had become the matriarch of her family, assisting them all financially, supporting them to sobriety, and helping them overcome many other ailments. Through all the various trials she had to deal with regarding her family, she remained a warm, kind, and loving person.
Concha’s story is not unusual in that her upbringing and early years influenced the trajectory of the rest of her life. The following brief paragraphs summarize her outstanding accomplishments in the field of social work. Her roles as a responsible first child and caring big sister undoubtedly led to her outstanding abilities to mentor students and colleagues, and to provide unselfish assistance for clients.​

Here now are the years, titles, initiatives and accomplishments of the woman, mentor, scholar, friend and champion that was Concha.

She began her association with USC in 1993 in the Susan Dworak-Peck school of social work as a consultant to the Office of Admissions. She turned to teaching in 1997-1998 school year, then south to San Diego State University, becoming an assistant professor in the school of social work. Gaining recognition, she was promoted to associate professor, and served in that capacity in the years2002-2006. Then, she returned to the USC school of social work. This time her relationship with the university endured as a tenured faculty member from 2006 until her retirement in 2024 and emerita status.

Those years were filled with service as Executive Vice-Dean, in conjunction with her research and teaching, plus work as chair and vice chair of the Faculty Council, and subsequently to hold those same titles for the Curriculum Council. And there's more, service on the USC Faculty Senate, USC taskforce on advanced PhD Fellowships, USC Social Sciences Sub-Committee on Curriculum. There was also her work as Prime and Co-Prime Investigator (which meant she carried the full weight of responsibility to for seeing grants done and accounted for)for the grants studies unit of the NIMH Geriatric Psychiatry Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research. All the while, she published prolifically on mental health services access, utilization and implementations, bioethics, and culturally tailored schizophrenia interventions, this in collaboration with the County of San Diego.

And yes, there's more, more titles, and more of what she was: the years given to understanding, hers a practiced and steady hand at creating and sharing a determined compassion meant to insure that people and their needs are heard. There was more post retirement work and collaborations in the communities she spent a lifetime serving. Accolades came, as they should, all met with grace and thanks, along with the acknowledgments of countless friends and associates. And finally, she was what she set out to be, and became a champion.

She will be missed.
      Funded Project Announcement Video:
     Your Baby's Amazing Brain
The high-tech mobile museum
​Your Baby's Amazing Brain
MOTAL Creates Traveling Exhibitions
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