Barbara is an untraditional scientist in that she started graduate school at 40 and received her PHD in microbiology at 45. Currently, she is a research microbiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado. She manages production and distribution of CDC reference arboviruses and reagents to US and international public health laboratories, academic researchers, nongovernment agencies, and commercial entities. She also manages and curates the CDC Arbovirus reference collection of approximately 100,000 vials.

Barbara also serves as the project coordinator of the Zika diagnostic laboratory training cooperative agreement between CDC and World Health Organization and provides recommendations and technical support as a subject matter expert to the CDC Global Disease Detection Branch Technical Service Corps.