Barbara began her professional life as a registered nurse, working in many different hospitals and clinical areas in Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Once her children passed toddler age, she enrolled at UBC and completed her BScN. She then began teaching at various places in the Lower Mainland – VCC, Vancouver General School of Nursing and the UBC School of Nursing.

She also did some administrative work. Following a stint as Director of Nursing at two large hospitals in Winnipeg, she completed her MSc in Health Care Planning and Administration in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC and began a consulting practice, which continued for several years.

She is the mother of two daughters. Her youngest, AJ, is profoundly deaf, and has just been diagnosed with a progressive genetic disorder, dystonia. Her elder daughter, Jill, is a nurse and graduated from Barbara’s old alma mater, the Winnipeg General Hospital, while they lived in Winnipeg in the early 1980s. Barbara is now retired and has volunteered as a ‘greeter’ at Christ Church Cathedral for the past several years. She’s completing her eighth year on the board of Wavefront Centre, and she’s been board president for the last five years.