Barbara Knollmann-Ritschel is Austrian/German origin who immigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio as a child. She served 27 years on Active Duty in the US Navy as a pathologist, and now continues to lead pathology education for medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD as Vice Chair of Pathology. She is a Dame in the Order of Malta where she is a member of the Lourdes Committee as well as Co-Chair of the Lourdes Outreach Committee engaging underserved Parishes in the Greater Washington Area. She has been a member of Annunciation Parish since 1993, except for the years she was moved around with the Navy.