Rachael Barlow graduated from Washington and Lee University with a degree in sociology and anthropology and received her Master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from Indiana University.  In her dissertation, she examined how librarians and library buildings co-construct librarians' professional identities. 

Before coming to Trinity, she taught at Indiana University, University of Connecticut, and University of Hartford, where she taught everything from Social Change to the Sociology of Education.  As Trinity's Social Sciences Data Coordinator, she works with faculty and students to locate data useful for long-term research projects and short-term analysis and simulation exercises.  She regularly guest-lectures about data gathering and data-related issues (sampling, poll, etc.) in classes across Trinity's disciplines.