Although her career took her in a different direction, Barb’s environmental activism was recognized at a young age when she was named the 1972 Youth Environmentalist of the Year by her Congressman, the Honorable Les Aspin. A Wisconsin native, she pursued degrees in recreation therapy and vocational rehabilitation counseling. Barb has expertise in federal disability policy related to employment, education, healthcare and disability rights. She most recently served as Executive Director of TASH, a national advocacy organization that advances inclusion and human rights of people with significant disabilities.  

 

Prior to her work with TASH, Barb lived in Atlanta, where she developed a nationally recognized therapeutic recreation department at Shepherd Center, a National Model System of Care center in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and served as its Director from 1978-1993. Barb became the first director of a wheelchair division of a major road race and helped develop the sport of wheelchair road racing and its rules over a ten year period. In 1992, she led the successful effort to bring the Paralympic Games to the United States for the first time in history and was the Vice President of Youth and Community Programs, involving scores of youth programs, young people and disability rights leaders from throughout the world in the overall Paralympic Games celebration. She has launched multiple national programs aimed at inclusion of people with disabilities throughout society and served on the national leadership staff of VSA arts and Easter Seals. 

 

As a retiree, Barb enjoys gardening, travel, hiking, biking, running, and giving back to her community, most recently serving as the co-chair of County Executive Fitzwater’s Transition Team’s Committee on Sustainability, Infrastructure and Transportation. She is a founder and President of the Board of Mobilize Frederick and is on the Board of Envision Frederick County. Barb co-chaired Frederick County’s and City’s joint Climate Emergency Mobilization Workgroup and co-authored its report, Climate Response and Resilience (mobilizefrederick.org), and co-founded MACS, the Multifaith Alliance of Climate Stewards of Frederick County. She’s an enthusiastic resident of downtown Frederick and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick. She and her husband, Mark Gregory, have four grown children in Maryland, California and Washington.