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Dr. Barbara Chester
Mercy Has a Human Heart —a line from her favorite poem and the title of a book she was working on at the time of her death in 1997— concisely describes the life and work of Dr. Barbara Chester. Barbara lived her 47 years on the frontiers of human courage and compassion.
Barbara Chester was born in 1950 and died in 1997. In between occurred a most remarkable journey. She received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Genetics and Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1976. A graduate school mentor commented that Barbara “listened to a different drummer.” That drummer was the human heart, and for the next 21 years her work would heal that drumbeat.
Barbara was first and foremost a healer and transformer of pain. She worked with female prison inmates, then established the nationally recognized Sexual Violence Center in Minneapolis. In 1985, once the Sexual Violence Center was solidly established, Barbara’s attention turned. The Governor of Minnesota had proposed a unique cutting-edge program.
In the 1980s, the Danish established the first center for the rehabilitation of survivors of torture in Copenhagen; no such clinical facility existed in the United States. In 1986 with Barbara Chester as Executive Director, the Center for Victims of Torture opened in Minneapolis. The Center has served hundreds of torture survivors from every continent but Antartica and is viewed as a premier center.
"Barbara was first and foremost a healer and transformer of pain"
After completing her doctorate in psychology and behavioral genetics from the University of Minnesota, she developed and directed the state's first program for victims of sexual assault. In 1986, as Executive and Clinical Director, Barbara was instrumental in developing The Center For Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, the first such program in the United States. There, until 1991, she treated survivors of torture from over 40 countries, including Cambodia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Vietnam.​
​Each year from 1986 to 1990, Barbara Chester would take leave of her residence and work in Minneapolis to pay her respects to the Hopi Indians in northeastern Arizona. For Barbara, Hopi embraced both universal and diverse elements of life. These visits instilled in her clarity of thought and a sense of well-being. By 1991, Barbara was the Clinical Director of the Center for Victims of Torture, and, with the future of the Center assured, she moved to Arizona. There she worked with several American Indian tribes including the Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo.
​As Clinical Director for the Hopi Foundation, from 1992 until her death, Barbara founded and directed the Center for the Prevention and Resolution of Violence in Tucson, Arizona. There she treated refugees crossing the Mexican-American border — including indigenes from Central and South America, and Chiapas, Mexico — as well as torture survivors from Bosnia, Vietnam and Moldavia, among others.
Besides these milestone accomplishments, Barbara found time for teaching, community corrections projects, extensive work with Native American peoples, travel to experience and appreciate the diversity of human cultures around the world, flamenco dancing, and innumerable kindnesses. Dr. Inge Genefke, then Secretary-General of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims in Copenhagen, said in a tribute, "I don't think I ever met a person with such a fine understanding of the sufferings of others as Barbara. Her intuition and brilliant intellect were combined so harmoniously that we could all benefit."