Originally from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Barbara is a screenwriter, producer, columnist, and radio host, and has her PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University, UK.

Barbara is the Founder and Chair Emeritus of Act One.

She has taught screenwriting and entertainment ethics and theology at a number of universities. Most recently, she helped found the Great Books Honors College at Azusa Pacific University, in Azusa CA. In 2019, Barbara was named associate professor and coordinator of script and screenwriting programs within the Media & Visual Arts department of the School of Communication & the Arts at Regent University.

Barbara is a member of the WGA-West and has written screenplays for several Hollywood entities. She is the writer on feature film, FATIMA, for Picturehouse and Rose Pictures.

Barbara also Executive Produced the 2010 Origin Entertainment 3D documentary Cosmic Origins and the award-winning short film In Memory, about euthanasia, and the web series Ask J and Judgmental Moose for Franciscan University.

She has been a script analyst, production company executive, and consultant on scores of entertainment projects including the features The Passion of the Christ and That Evening Sun, and TV shows Joan of Arcadia (CBS) and Saving Grace (TNT).