Barbara moved to Holladay, Utah with her family in 1969. Her father immediately bought a four-wheel-drive Jeep Wagoneer, and they began to travel down to southern Utah for camping trips in the National Parks, Monuments, and public lands. These four-wheeled adventures were followed by backpacking trips into southern Utah during her teenage years, including many into the area which subsequently became the Grand Staircase National Monument. She received her BA from Mt. Holyoke College and began her career as an archeologist by going to field school with the University of Utah at the base of the Henry Mountains. Since the early 1980s, she has worked as a professional archaeologist with cultural resource contract companies, eventually taking over the running of Intersearch, Inc., a small firm in Cedar City, Utah. Her work has included 20 years as the Assistant Director and Director of the Southern Utah University Archaeology Field School and serving as the Curator of the SUU Archaeology Repository since 1995. Her fields of interest include Virgin Anasazi, Fremont, and Southern Paiute archaeology.