Barbara Frank

Barbara Frank, M.P.A., began her career in long-term care by serving 16 years at the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform in Washington, D.C., where she facilitated the Campaign for Quality, through which providers, consumers, practitioners, and regulators developed consensus on what became the OBRA 1987 legislation that overhauled nursing home regulations to require more individualized care. She has served as state ombudsman for Connecticut. Barbara facilitated the first Pioneer Network gathering in 1997, and in 2005, she facilitated the St. Louis Accord, a national gathering of providers, consumers, regulators, and quality improvement organizations that came together to improve clinical outcomes through culture change. Co-founder (with her colleague, Cathie Brady) of B&F Consulting, she works directly with individual nursing homes to improve their performance measures through workforce retention and culture change. Barbara led a team in the New Orleans Nursing Home Staffing Project, which helped nursing homes recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She co-produced a film with Louisiana Public Broadcasting called The Big Uneasy: Katrina’s Unsung Heroes. She co-authored Nursing Homes: Getting Good Care There (1996) and has written extensively on efforts to improve care and outcomes in nursing homes. Barbara has an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government.