After receiving a B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Barbara began working in the advertising industry, first in videotape production and then as an assistant television producer at NW Ayer, where she worked on ad accounts such as the U.S. Army’s "Be All That You Can Be" campaign, RCA, Nestlé, General Motors and The American Cancer Society. She was introduced to the field of Information Technology (IT) while working as a manager at Anistics, a risk management company.