Barbara W. Eckert is a leadership consultant for the Catholic Church and has worked in over 60 dioceses in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. Her work with bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians, and lay persons emphasizes outcomes and skills for effective self, interpersonal, team, and organizational leadership. Eckert has led several diocesan visioning and pastoral planning efforts as well as retreats for the ordained. Her chapter “Roman Catholic Ordained Leadership,” is published in Religious Leadership: A Reference Handbook.

Eckert is a consultant for Catholic Leadership Institute, Villanova University’s Center for Church Management, and the Saint John Vianney Center. She is a board member of the Missionaries of the Poor and part of the team for Shirts Across America’s workshops on human and civil rights. She created and preached the mission Discipleship: We Are Part of a Great Story and leads retreats with a particular emphasis on Pope Francis’ call for missionary discipleship. She believes in using art, especially from diverse cultural groups, and story to increase awareness of God’s abundant presence.

Eckert holds a master’s degree in Pastoral Studies from Seattle University and is a proud “Zag” alumna of Gonzaga University. In Tacoma, Washington, she shares life, faith and learning with her husband Bill, loves to travel, create perennial gardens and be with her two sisters.