Living in the Long Beach area since the age of ten, Barbara attended five different schools in the Long Beach Unified School District:  John G. Whittier & Holmes Elementary Schools, Bancroft & Hoover Junior Highs, and Lakewood High School. After earning a B.A., M.A., and Secondary Teaching Credential from CSULB, she was right back to LBUSD where she spent the next 36 years, teaching, first at Hughes Junior High for 22 years and then returning to her alma mater, Lakewood High, for the final 14. During those years she was nominated by her peers and received the Golden Apple award from the Teachers Association of Long Beach, was recognized by the PTA at both schools with honorary service awards, and was honored by the District the year they chose her as their Outstanding High School Teacher.  

After retirement, she continued her membership in Alpha Delta Kappa, Pi Chapter, a professional organization of female educators, and also became active in the Long Beach Chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association. There she has chaired the scholarship committee for 15 years. In the 2013-2014 academic year, over $40,000 in scholarships has been awarded to future teachers at LBCC, Cerritos, and CSULB.  This year will also mark 25 years of her charter membership in the Aquarium of the Pacific at the Director level.   She has also volunteered at St. Mary Medical Center and is now a St. Mary Ambassador and a member of Sister Alphonsus Tallon Circle of Philanthropy and CARE Circle of Friends.  She was presented the Orville W. Cole Vision of Light Award by the Low Vision Center on that campus for “extraordinary generosity and dedication to helping others.” 

Finishing her second term on the Executive Committee of the LBCC Board of Governors, she is currently a Vice President of Stewardship & Donor Retention and is a member of the Senior Studies Advisory Group, as well as the Helping Homeless Students Associate Group. At CSULB she is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Group in the College of Education, as well as a member of Women in Philanthropy, the Legacy Society, and the Premier Director’s Circle of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center.