Barbara Hemphill started her organizing career in 1978 with a $7 ad in a New York City newspaper. Today, as the founder of the Productive Environment Institute, she leads an international team of Certified Productive Environment Specialists™.

Her passion is helping people eliminate the physical, emotional, and spiritual clutter that prevents them from accomplishing their work and enjoying their lives.  A respected expert in paper, information and time management, and work/life balance, Barbara’s books include Kiplinger’s Taming the Paper Tiger series, Love It or Lose It: Living Clutter-Free Forever, Bushido Business, co-authored by Stephen M.R. Covey, Tom Hopkins, and Brian Tracy, and her 2011 release, Organizing Paper @Home: What to Toss and How to Find the Rest.

Spanning a 30-year career on the cutting edge of a growing industry, Barbara has appeared on the Today Show and Good Morning America, in Reader's Digest, USA Today, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, The New York Times, Real Simple, and Guideposts magazine. She is past president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, a winner of the Founder’s Award, and a two-time winner of the President’s Award.

An adventurer as well as an innovator, Barbara has lived in the West Indies, India, New York City, and Washington, DC. While living in India in the 1970’s, she adopted three orphaned children. In addition, her family includes two stepchildren, four grandchildren, and her beloved one-of-a-kind husband Alfred Taylor, with whom she shares their own Productive Environment™ near Raleigh, NC.