Barbara Peterson

In 2018, Barbara Peterson joined the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri as the director of the execMBA program. Peterson has worked in higher education for 18 years in both the public and private sector. Prior to joining the execMBA program, she spent nearly nine years functioning as the chief marketing and public relations officer at Columbia College, which has 35 campuses across the nation and an enrollment of 29,000 students. She was a member of the president’s leadership cabinet. She also worked nearly five years as the director of Strategic Communications for the University of Missouri College of Education. In addition, she spent 10 years serving MU Health Care as the associate director of Marketing and manager of Public Relations. 

Peterson also has experience working in public relations and marketing roles for two Fortune 500 companies (Ameren Missouri and Reinsurance Group of America, Inc.). She also served as the director of Communications for the St. Louis office of KPMG Peat Marwick early in her career. 

She is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism at Mizzou, where she later taught Public Relations Principles as an instructor for the J-School. She was also accredited by the Public Relations Society of America in 1992.