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Barbara Bovbjerg ’68

“Watch the faculty, not just the ones in your best subjects! And, of course, the staff. They all have something to teach you, regardless of their position at the school.”
After graduating from Wilmington Friends School, Barbara Bovbjerg ’68 earned a degree in Philosophy and Literature from Oberlin College, where she was active in meditation and management of cooperative living. She later completed a Master’s in Regional Planning at Cornell University.
  
Barbara spent her entire career in public service, 30 years of it in the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), retiring in 2020 as Managing Director of the Education, Workforce, and Income Security team. In this role, she oversaw hundreds of major projects and reports that supported congressional decision-making. Earlier in her career at GAO, she managed the retirement income sub-group, developing deep expertise in Social Security, pensions, and retirement savings.

What Barbara valued most about her work was the opportunity to make a difference at the national level through nonpartisan, fact-based analysis. “Helping Congress and federal agencies better serve the public was the greatest job on Earth. Even when I didn’t agree personally with a policy decision made in my area of expertise, I knew the decision was made with access to the best analysis and the true facts.” She especially appreciated “the opportunity to interact directly with Congress—Members and staff both—and debate the policy and analytic implications of certain policies or proposals.” 

Barbara credits her time at Wilmington Friends with laying the foundation for a life of public service and principled leadership. “I learned that there is a broader community in the world than just people I knew, and we should all do what we can to benefit that broader community. Spending my career in the public policy arena was likely the result of the fine faculty and staff I saw every day at Friends.”

WFS also gave her the tools to think critically and speak truth to power. “Learning to think logically and for oneself was a really valuable academic gift. But Friends also demonstrated the importance of staying true to yourself and speaking out against the wrongs of the world.” That preparation served her well during her years at Oberlin, particularly during a time of national unrest. “When I moved on to Oberlin College, I was really ready for the type of anti-war activism that was endemic there at the time.”

She participated in a wide range of activities while at WFS, including basketball and music (piano), and was recognized with academic awards in math and English. She also served as editor of the Class of 1968 yearbook.

Reflecting on her journey, Barbara traces her passion for making a difference directly back to the values and voices she encountered at Friends: “Interest in improving the world, interest in analytic thinking—it all came together for me.”
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