Barbara co-founded the California Music Project and served as its Chair until 2010. She is an Honorary Member of the Board of the Judicial Family Institute.

Previously she was Chair of the California Arts Council, and has served as Vice Chair of the Council for Northern California, Chair of the Supreme Court Art Selection Panel for the Earl Warren building in San Francisco, member of the Art Selection Panel for the California Department of Transportation headquarters in Los Angeles and the Board of the State Summer School for the Arts.

In 1968 she founded George and Jacobsen Interiors.  She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Southern California.