Dawn Oxenaar Barrett is an executive coach, designer and consultant with thirty years experience in visual arts, developmental learning, and higher education leadership.

Barrett's consultancy provides expertise, strategic advising and coaching for cultural and non-profit institutions including: universities, colleges and institutions in the US, Europe, and the Middle-East. Her clients include the Universities of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Richmond and Denver; the American University of Kuwait; Maryland Institute College of Arts; as well as Williams, Davidson, Lewis & Clark, Simmons, and Albright colleges.

For work in design strategy Barrett's partners are from the education, design, and government sectors, including: Duke University, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Studio Dumbar and PTT Nederland (The Hague) the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) and the Royal Danish Post (Copenhagen). She is currently Research Fellow at the Dutch National Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank NV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.) 

Barrett's leadership appointments include: President, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston MA; Dean and Professor, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence RI; and Head of the Department of Design and Tutor, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Her extensive expertise in accreditation is a result of more than fifteen years of service as an evaluator for the American Landscape Association Accreditation Board (LAAB), the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), as member of Commission on Accreditation from 2003-2010, and now as a domestic and international consultant to NASAD.

Her appointments to governing boards include: Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC; The Charles Nyples Foundation, Maastricht; the Design Museum Boston MA; and the Plymouth Antiquarian Society, MA.

Barrett's critical writing connects the disciplines of visual culture and history, and has appeared in a number of visual arts serial publications, including: Zed, Visible Language, the Dutch journal Archis, and the UK philosophical journal, Parallax. Barrett is editor of the book 'Interface: An Approach to Design', by Gui Bonsiepe (1998, Maastricht); the founding editor of 'Aspect' (Division of Architecture + Design, RISD. 2009-10, Providence, RI. With Andrew Martinez, she co-edited and produced: 'Infinite Radius: Founding Rhode Island School of Design' (2008, Providence). She has researched and co-curated the exhibitions 'Vorm van Geld' in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1989; and the history of photography in Dutch stamps exhibition 'Bonjour Monsier Niepce', at the PTT Museum in The Hague. 

Barrett resides in Manomet, Massachusetts; Dallas, Texas; and in the Dordogne region of France.