Barbara Shema

Barbara lives in northeastern United States. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Barbara and her husband moved to upstate New York in 2007 after living in Providence, Rhode Island for 6 years.

While living in Rhode Island, Barbara worked at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University where she coordinated a national program, the Capitol Forum on America's Future, that provides a venue for high school students to learn about, and have dialogue around, options in U.S. foreign policy.

She also collaborated with adult literacy educators as an Artist/Educator with a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to facilitate visual arts workshops for refugees enrolled in English language classes at the Genesis Center.

In Pittsburgh, Barbara worked in college admissions with Carlow College (now Carlow University), and was the Outreach Administrator for the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the University of Pittsburgh, a site of the National Writing Project.

As a practicing visual artist, she enjoys the play between materials, process and people. Her exploration of mixed media, combining various art processes and applications, is a method of discovery about art and about herself. As an artist and also a jazz enthusiast, Barbara seeks out art museums and live performances of be-bop, straight-ahead, and avantgarde jazz groups in jazz club settings when traveling in the USA and Europe.

Barbara writes on a variety of topics from travel related articles and jazz, to child development issues, to non-profit business profiles. She has an undergraduate degree in Art Education and a graduate degree in Educational Leadership.