She completed her basic nursing education at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, N.H. She earned a bachelor of science in nursing at UCSF and a master of science in nursing from Duke University. She is certified as a gerontological nurse practitioner by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Barton speaks in the community on the topics of cognition in the elderly, cognitive assessment and non-pharmacological management of behavior problems in dementia.