It all began back in 1998, in Chicago, when Chris Sullivan, then the editor of Consulting-Specifying Engineer, brought Barbara in as an assistant editor based upon her experience as a Toledo Blade staff reporter and a United Press International Jerusalem bureau reporter. Little did she know, Chris would become her mentor and help Barbara establish a niche for herself in the building and construction industry.

After four years with CSE with a brief stint at Energy User News in between, Barbara got married and followed her hubby to the Holy Land. After suavely convincing her CSE editor at the time, Jim Crockett, to turn her position into a free-lance budget, she became CSE’s “Jerusalem correspondent,” and continued to deliver regular content for the next 4 years. In addition to compiling the monthly Mechanical/Electrical Virtual Roundtable department and other articles, Barbara’s favorite assignments were writing up building market overview features which put her in touch with industry leaders and kept her abreast of the latest trends.

When Jim left the magazine in 2007, Barbara reconnected with Chris, who had recently left the helm of Architecture magazine to start up his own P.R. firm, C.C. Sullivan (www.ccsullivan.com). The timing was perfect, and she became one of Chris’ main writers as his clientele quickly grew. In addition to press releases, newsletter articles, and white papers, Barbara’s main gig with Chris evolved into their monthly co-produced technical supplements for Building Design+Construction magazine, which, incidentally, received two prestigious Award nominations this year.

Then, in 2008, once Jim was established as Editor in Chief of Architectural Products magazine, he brought Barbara on as his commercial plumbing and glass/windows beat reporter.

Somewhere along the line, Barbara also began helping out some of her PR buddies with some ghostwriting at assorted A/E firms including the Syska Hennessy Group, Albert Kahn Associates, R.G. Vanderweil, the SmithGroup, OWP/P/Cannon, Carter & Burgess, AECOM, LPA, NBBJ and Heery International.

Most recently, Barbara was asked to step up as a consulting/contributing editor to Healthcare Building Ideas to supplement her role as a regular contributor to Healthcare Design magazine.