She formerly held the Jean Sammet endowed chair in the department of Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
[citation needed] Barr is currently the first person to be the Margaret Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Bard College.
Previously, in 2017, Barr was named the first person to hold the Jean E. Sammet Chair in Computer Science at Mount Holyoke College.
[5][6] In 2016, she served as an Academic Corner Speaker at the Anita Borg Institute international conference Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
She served as a program director at the United States National Science Foundation in the Division of Undergraduate Education during 2013–2014.