Barbara has been a lifelong resident of Madison County, Illinois. She graduated from Roxana High School and then attended Western Illinois University, graduating with high honors in 1976 with a degree in Law Enforcement Administration. She graduated from Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Missouri in December 1978.
While in law school, Barbara interned for the Bernard and Davidson Law Office in Granite City, Illinois. After becoming licensed in Illinois in 1979, she became an assistant state’s attorney in Madison County, Illinois, prosecuting criminal misdemeanors, traffic and juvenile cases. In 1980 she became the attorney at the Student Legal Services office on the campus of SIUE. Barbara opened her law office in 1983. For about twenty years, she handled a wide variety of legal matters, such as family law, divorce, adoption, civil, personal injury, probate, SOS hearings and criminal cases.
Since 2004 Barbara has limited her practice to defending criminal cases and representing clients at SOS hearings (seeking the restoration of driving privileges). Barbara has developed a reputation as a very capable attorney in DUI cases and SOS hearings.