Editor’s Note: The theme for Black History Month 2025 is "African Americans and Labor," focusing on the significant contributions and experiences of Black people in the workforce.
Growing up, Nikki Barrett knew what it was like to not see many people who looked like her.
She attended school in the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission districts.
“I felt alone in school. I was a tall, mixed-race kid, in a single-parent home, living in an apartment with my mom,” she said. “As a mixed-race kid, to the white kids I was too brown, to the brown kids, I was too white. So that made me odd.”
Barrett didn’t begin to fit in until high school. She excelled at athletics, earning an athletic scholarship to play soccer at the University of Kansas.
“As a gay woman of color, I don’t feel like I have much privilege, but athletics gave me some,” she said.
Barrett was the first Black women’s soccer player at KU. She played from 1999-2002.
“I was used to being the only Black player on the team. I was always darker and always taller,” she said. “I didn’t find out I was the first Black player until a couple of years ago when KU recognized me.”
Because she always felt different from everybody else when she was growing up, she was empathetic to others who didn’t fit in.
“I always accepted everybody. I remember this kid in elementary school, who had almost no friends, but I was friends with him,” she said. “My whole life I’ve always been open and accepting, and my mom was too.”
That caring and compassionate perspective is what led her to become a therapist. Barrett is the WRAP (Wellness, Resources, Access and Prevention) therapist at Hillcrest and Woodlawn elementary schools. WRAP is Bert Nash Center’s therapeutic intervention program in Douglas County schools.
Barrett and her wife have three mixed-race children, including one with special needs.
“I have a fierce drive to ensure, especially kids of color and kids with special needs, have access to mental health support,” Barrett said. “That’s what got me into this field.”
Barrett was a fierce competitor as a soccer player. That passion carries over to her role as a therapist.
“Rosa Parks is my idol,” Barrett said of the civil rights activist known for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. “I feel like I have the same personality as Rosa Parks.”
Barrett said it is important to offer a safe space for students of color and to celebrate them.
“At least three-quarters of my caseload are kids of color. And some of those kids I have because they see me as a person of color,” she said.
Barrett believes it is important to observe Black History Month and it angers her that some are trying to do away with it.
“I celebrate Black history all the time and the fact that they are trying to take it away, makes me even more fired up,” she said. “While I wish Black History Month shouldn’t be necessary, it should just be what people do. We should always remember Rosa Parks and Simone Biles and Thurgood Marshall, instead of just in February.”
Barrett said mental healthcare hasn’t always been embraced by the Black community.
“In the African American community, we’re strong, our family can help, we don’t need therapy, it’s for the weak. It’s a culture thing,” Barrett said. “I would like to change that. Working in the elementary schools, I get the opportunity to let kids know that therapy is cool, that it’s needed.”
From an inclusivity standpoint, Barrett said the Bert Nash Center has worked to ensure there are no barriers to services for students.
“For people of color there are barriers to literally everything and I think Bert Nash has done a great job, especially with WRAP, of breaking down that accessibility barrier to service in the schools,” she said. “In the area where I work, I feel like we treat all of the kids and families the same.”