Before accepting a full-time appointment to the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University where he is Associate Teaching Professor of marketing and professional writing, Barr was Vice President of Marketing for Allegheny University Medical Practices (AUMP-West), a group of over 200 physicians in over 80 offices in southwestern Pennsylvania. As Vice President, Ed was responsible for creating the marketing strategy for the combined medical practices as well as all individual practices.

He also served for 14 years as Director of Corporate Communications at the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, the parent corporation of Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh and several other affiliated health care organizations. At Mercy, Ed and his staff managed the Mercy image through news media relations, publications, graphic design, and internal and external communications. While he was director, Ed managed Mercy's advertising campaigns and interactions with advertising agencies and media. His office also supported the hospital's capital campaign, annual giving, and special campaigns and projects, such as the "Head of the Ohio Regatta."

Barr's professional experience includes work at a for-profit television production firm, TPC Communications, formerly of Pittsburgh. Currently, he also is a partner in the firm Linchpin Learning, which provides communication training to corporations. In that role he has taught over 700 corporate employees in the past five years. In that same period he has served as a marketing, communications, and fund development consultant to Pittsburgh organizations such as Pittsburgh Public Schools, Davison Design and Development, the Byzantine Catholic Seminary, Renewal, Inc., Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, and the YMCA of Pittsburgh, as well as other organizations such as Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System, and Aladdin's Restaurants, among others.

As a consultant to the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Pittsburgh, Barr directed their first-ever fund raising campaign, which netted over $1.5 million for an endowment. He has written grants for Renewal, Inc. of Pittsburgh, helped the company introduce a software product, CorTrac, to the corrections market, and handled aspects of their 25th Anniversary celebration in 2001. He facilitated the 2002 board retreat of Rebuilding Together in Pittsburgh; and, he has facilitated crisis planning for the Pittsburgh YMCA's Center Avenue branch, led motivational sessions for the Pittsburgh YMCA corporate office, and in 2003 he presented "Non-Profit Marketing" to the Pittsburgh Society of Association Executives (PSAE) in Pittsburgh and "Issues in IT Communications" to the CIO Institute in Washington, D.C.

An expert in marketing, communication, fund development and writing, Ed at one time in his career coached football and wrestling. Over the years, he has worked both on the client side, managing agency relations, and on the agency side, as a consultant. He wrote for the newspaper, "Byzantine Catholic World," and brings a direct and strategic approach to marketing, communication and fund development, particularly through clear, concise and coherent communications.