Hello, I’m Barbara, a leading authority and award-winning author on managing burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and vicarious trauma. As a nationally recognized keynote speaker and trainer, I motivate first responders, victim service providers, mental health professionals and health care professionals who work in trauma-informed organizations to build their resilience and create work-life balance. My wellness programs help audiences manage workplace chronic stressors and get over burnout at work.

• Three weeks prior to my giving birth to triplets, my father died by suicide. My story was featured in the Emmy award winning documentary, Fatal Mistakes, Families Shattered by Suicide narrated by Mariette Hartley. As an expert thanatologist, I realize that many employees are grieving from their pandemic experience which impacts productivity and performance.

• As a sought-after keynote speaker who has presented to over 1,000 groups since 1991, including corporations, state and national associations and non-profit organizations, I offer strategies for trauma-informed organizations to implement right away. With clarity and humor, my interactive and fun speaking engagements are designed to give audiences powerful and practical strategies of work-life balance, well-being, and self-care that can be implemented immediately.

• I'm a Board-Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress, Diplomate with the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress & received a BS in psychology and a MA degree in community health, with a concentration in thanatology.

• I am the author of But I Didn’t Say Goodbye: Helping Families After a Suicide (3rd ed.); the 30-hr CE course, Loss, Grief, and Bereavement: Helping Individuals Cope (4th ed.), and CE course, COVID-19 Loss, Grief, and Bereavement (2020)

• Co-author: Dept. of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime Training Curriculum, Compassion Fatigue; and Living Blue (2024)

• Contributing writer: Thin Threads: Grief & Renewal; Fresh Grief; Coaching for Results; & Keys to a Good Life

• Featured: Newsweek, Good housekeeping, Family Circle, Health, Shape, Jennings Wire, CYACYL, WOR the voice of NY 710, FOX Business, Open to Hope TV, and TODAY

• Awards: Most Influential First Responder Keynote Speaker 2023 (USA), Ai Global Media; Most Compassionate Trauma-Informed Care Training Specialist 2023, Global Health & Pharma; Essential Worker Mental Health Thought-Leader of the Year 2022