Barbara is a writer and musician whose early love of sound led to a study of music, and degrees in music composition from Ithaca College and Northwestern University. After a few career twists and publications, she became the Director of Mundelein College’s Creative Writing Program, then taught Literature and Creative Writing at National-Louis University where she also acted as a consultant to National’s graduate program in Written Communication. She's written fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, placed in screenwriting competitions, and was nominated for a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2011, her novel, Shadows and Ghosts received the Serving House Books/Fairleigh Dickinson University First Book Award in Prose, and was subsequently published by Serving House Books. In 2015, she was an Assistant Editor of (After)life: Poems and Stories of the Dead, published by Purple Passion Press. She continues to be active musically.