Barbara is the Co-founder, Clerk and Curator of the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center which opened its doors in East Falmouth in 2001. She earned a B.A. from Rhode Island College in 2005 (Magna Cum Laude) as a non-traditional student – at the age of 53 – while assisting her two daughters through college. She majored in Cultural Anthropology, with a focus on the Republic of Cabo Verde, and minored in Women’s Studies.

Barbara served seven years as a Brewster Housing Authority Commissioner and was the Housing Authority’s delegate to the Community Preservation Committee and a member of the housing sub-committee.  Barbara is a former Chair of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, former Vice Chair of South Coastal Counties Legal Services, former State President of American Association of University Women – MA (AAUW) member of the NAACP Cape Cod and MAWOCC (Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition). 

Barbara’s first trip to her ancestral homeland took place during the initial URI/RIC Summer Seminar in Cape Verde in 1997 and has just returned from her sixth trip to the West African archipelago. She grew up in Taunton and moved to Cape Cod in 2012 as her grandmother once lived in Harwich and her mother was born in Barnstable so she’s been visiting family here on the Cape for over 60 years.