Barbara Winard has a B.A. in English literature and an M.S. journalism, both from Boston University, and, later in life at age 55 earned an M.A. in gerontology from the University of Southern California. For 25 years, she was a senior editor of two online encyclopedias for Grolier and Scholastic publishers.

Barbara began her 50+ years of solo travels in college, and after returning from a 6-month trip to Asia, she wandered off the street and was hired by the Asia Society in New York City to produce films and print materials for adults and children about Asian culture. She also worked as a film programmer for them and traveled to film festivals around the world. She has produced and written documentaries in or about Morocco, South Korea, Lebanon, Indonesia, Japan and India, among other places. Barbara got her start in film production and writing with New York City’s public television station, WNET/13.

After she was laid off from her job at Scholastic at age 71, Barbara took her first group tour ever. This inspired her to start writing about her own travel experiences for the first time in her life. Over the past three years she written a blog called the Baby Bloomer as well as travel articles for TravelAwaits, Road Scholar, Medium, Boomer Café, and other online and print publications.