Artist
Healdsburg, CA
Barbara graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in consumer affairs. After attending a year at Emory University Law School, she embarked upon a management career in the food and beverage industry as a VP of Operations for an Atlanta restaurant company.
Her compassion and care for people being affected by the AIDS crisis led her to become a fund-raiser. She was the National Chairperson for “Heart Strings, the National Tour: Evenings of Hope for the Healing of AIDS,” presented by DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation For AIDS). A turning point in her life that impacted her personal growth was attending and working at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, a nationally recognized holistic learning center focusing on the body, mind and spirit.
For the past 23 years, Barbara has been an artist, first living in Seattle; and, for the past 13 years, in Healdsburg and San Francisco, California.
Barbara expresses herself through mixed media collage art, photography, her love of food and design, and her interest in the human connection. Her intuition and compassionate nature have been her guiding lights over the years.
Her passions are cooking and gardening, creating art in her studio, practicing yoga, promoting NPR, addressing and funding social issues in her community, living a blessed life with her husband, Howard, and nurturing her stepdaughter, who is a writer.
Fellow: Howard Wollner