(From Mason-Woodard Mortuary)
Dr. Alla G. Barry, age 64, of Joplin, Missouri, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on September 4, 2026.
Alla was born on August 5, 1962, in Arkhangelsk, Russia, to Captain Grigorii Veretnov and Dr. Nina Veretnova. She received her medical degree from Northern State Medical University and practiced internal medicine for more than a decade before moving to the United States in 1998. In 2010, Alla joined Missouri Southern State University, first as an adjunct professor, and the following year became a full-time faculty member in the Biology Department.
Over the next 16 years, she rose through the academic ranks to become Professor of Biology & Environmental Health, and Human Dissection Lab Director. She taught Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology, Advanced Human Dissection, and Neuroanatomy while mentoring generations of students preparing for careers in medicine, dentistry, physician assistant studies, nursing, emergency medicine, and other health professions.
At Missouri Southern, Dr. Barry became far more than a professor. She helped build the university’s cadaver-based anatomy program and, for more than a decade, led its Advanced Human Dissection course, providing undergraduate students with the rare opportunity to perform complete human dissections. She taught her students to approach every donor as their “first patient,” instilling not only anatomical knowledge, but also reverence, empathy, curiosity, and responsibility. She also helped bring hands-on ultrasonography into undergraduate anatomy education, always looking ahead to what her students would need to become thoughtful and capable healthcare professionals. Her vision extended well beyond the anatomy laboratory.
Alla founded the Artful Medicine Symposium, bringing medicine together with art and the humanities to encourage observation, empathy, communication, and a deeper understanding of what it means to care for another person. She also led students through Anatomical Italy, a study-abroad experience exploring the history of medicine and anatomy in the places where so much of that history was written.
Yet of everything she accomplished, titles, promotions, and programs were never what mattered most to Alla. Her students were her “why.”
Dr. Barry gave her students more than any job description could ever require. She worked countless hours because she believed deeply in their ability to become more than they believed possible for themselves. She had a remarkable gift for recognizing talent, strength, and potential in people before they could see it themselves. She could meet each person exactly where they were, speaking with such genuine interest and understanding that they could not help but trust her. She welcomed people without judgment, taught with curiosity, and never stopped learning herself. For many, she changed the direction of their lives and placed them on paths they had never imagined they were capable of walking. She carried herself with elegance and unmistakable style—always dressed to the nines—and spoke with a calmness, knowledge, and wisdom that commanded respect without ever demanding it. She was brilliant, endlessly curious, generous with herself, and completely full of life.
She was not ready to leave this world, and those who loved her were not ready to let her go.
The impact Dr. Barry made at Missouri Southern and throughout the Joplin community cannot be measured simply by the number of students she taught. Over 16 years at MSSU, she touched hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Her influence lives on in the people she encouraged, the careers she helped create, the physicians, nurses, paramedics, technicians, and other healthcare professionals she helped prepare, and in every patient who will be cared for by someone she once taught. Her legacy continues outward—from student to patient, from colleague to colleague, from one generation to the next. The ripples of her life and work will be felt throughout this community for many years to come.
There will never be another Dr. Barry.
Outside of her professional life, Alla loved traveling, the ocean, beautiful places, wonderful food, and experiencing the world with people she loved. Of the many destinations she visited, Italy held a particularly special place in her heart. She felt at home there and especially loved taking her students to Italy. Those trips became some of her most treasured adventures. She delighted in watching her students experience the history of anatomy and medicine, immerse themselves in the culture, discover the food, enjoy the prosciutto and a glass of light wine, and grow through seeing a world beyond the classroom. Long after returning home, Alla would continue talking about those trips—the places they had visited, what her students had learned, and, most of all, their excitement and smiles. She was also simply the best companion with whom to travel.
Alla raised a family of strong women, and she made certain that everyone knew how to cook.
She was a wonderful hostess whose home was a place where people were welcomed, fed, and cared for. Through Russian culture and cuisine, Alla lived by a simple philosophy: if you want to keep a friend, feed them. She was famous for creating wonderful soups from whatever ingredients happened to be available, for the Russian borscht her family craved and requested at nearly every visit, and for her granddaughters’ favorite stuffed peppers. Then there was Elena’s favorite, “salmon under a fur coat,” a dish that belonged especially to the two of them—one they happily enjoyed without ever having to share with anyone else. Those meals were never simply food. They were how Alla loved people.
Alla is survived by her husband, Andrew Barry, whom she married on December 17, 2014; her daughters, Dr. Elena G. Olson of Madison, Wisconsin, and Jaynya Lioubinsky of Austin, Texas; her sister, Dr. Elena G. Kazieva of Arkhangelsk, Russia; and her beloved granddaughters, Jayden and Alexandra.
Alla will be profoundly missed and forever remembered. Her life leaves behind an immeasurable legacy—one without boundaries of profession, place, or time. She lives on through her family, her students, her colleagues, her friends, the patients cared for by those she trained, and every life made better because she was part of it.
A celebration of Dr. Alla Barry’s life will be held at Taylor Performing Arts Center on the campus of Missouri Southern State University on Friday, September 11, 2026, beginning at 3:00 p.m.
