[4][6] After finishing her degree, she enrolled in the Louisiana State University (LSU) Dental School and applied for an Army Health Professions scholarship to cover the expenses.

[4] The terms of her scholarship required her to serve in the army as a commissioned officer for three years, even though she did not finish her training.

[4] After her mandatory service, Barabino applied to several PhD programs in Chemical Engineering and received a prestigious National Science Foundation graduate fellowship.

[7][8] Her thesis work involved studying the abnormal flow of blood in sickle cell disease, a topic she picked because it disproportionately affects African Americans.

However, she found that she missed basic research and wanted to work in areas with biomedical applications.

She was a professor in the department of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, as well as the associate chair for graduate studies and the inaugural vice provost for academic diversity.

[4][1] In 2013 she became the Daniel and Frances Berg Professor and dean of the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York, where she maintained an active research group.