Elizabeth graduated from the Academy of Our Lady of Guam in 1971. She received a Professional & Technical Scholarship to attend college at Chaminade College in Hawaii, from 1971 to 1973, and further at the University of San Francisco where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1974. She continued her graduate education under the government of Guam’s scholarship program at the University of Santa Clara School of Law where she obtained her Juris Doctorate Degree in 1979.

Upon returning to the Territory she interned with the Superior Court of Guam as law clerk for Judge Richard Benson, Judge Ramon Diaz, and Presiding Judge Paul Abbate. She was admitted to the practice of law in the Territory of Guam on January 5, 1980. In 1981 she was hired as Assistant Legal Counsel for the Department of Education, and from August 1981 through December 1984, she served as Legal Counsel. She entered private practice in 1984 with the law firm of Arriola & Cowan as Associate Counsel concentrating her practice in the areas of land, probate, government, and juvenile law.

In 1987, Governor Joseph F. Ada nominated Attorney Barrett-Anderson to the post of Attorney General of Guam. She was confirmed on July 23, 1987 to the position as Guam’s first female Attorney General. During her tenure Attorney Barrett-Anderson established the Family Division to strengthen the Territory’s Child Support Enforcement program, direct attention to the needs of abused children, and to address a growing juvenile problem. She was also instrumental in the enactment of the Consumer Protection Law in 1992, and the modernization of Guam’s Notary Public statute in 1993. She was elected by Governor Joseph F. Ada as Director of the Year in 1991 in recognition of her innovative ideas and strengthening of the prosecutorial and civil divisions of the Attorney General’s Office. She was also awarded the 1994 Achievement Award by the National Association of Notary Public for her modernization of Guam’s Notary Laws.

She left her post as Attorney General in July 1994 to run for elective office. Then Senator Barrett-Anderson successfully ran for a second term in the 24th Guam Legislature and served as Chairperson on the Committee on Judiciary, Public Safety and Consumer Protection. On November 7, 1997 she was nominated by Governor Carl T.C. Gutierrez to become a Superior Court of Guam Judge. She was confirmed by her colleagues of the 25th Guam Legislature, and sworn-in on April 14, 1998 as the seventh judge on the Superior Court bench. Judge Barrett-Anderson is assigned to the Family Court.