Barbara is an ecologist, environmental educator, and Project Lead at the environmental nonprofit, Grassroots Ecology. She is really passionate about bridging plant and people communities alike through habitat restoration and cultivating authentic relationships.
Barbara has managed numerous habitat restoration projects in the Bay Area as well as led volunteer habitat restoration and educational events with and for community members. She has worked in various academic, nonprofit, and public agency sectors in the Bay Area and Sacramento Delta in ecological research, land management, and community engagement. Her research experience includes data collection of drought mortality in Sierra Nevada forests, phototropism in sunflowers, skototropism in Costa Rica’s cloud forest, and plant diversity of restored wetlands. She especially loves leading naturalists events in Spanish and connecting nature to celebrations like Dia de los Muertos alongside community partners.
Barbara was born in Teocaltiche, Mexico and moved to Sacramento, California as a child. She was inspired to follow a career in conservation and environmental justice after witnessing the disproportional impacts that climate change has on low income and BIPOC communities. As a first generation college student, Barbara graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Forestry and Natural Resources. She is passionate about connecting people to nature by making spaces accessible to all, demystifying community science, and working towards environmental justice and equity. She also participated in Justice Outside’s Rising Leaders Fellowship in 2022 to further advance racial equity in the environmental field and incorporate tools like trauma informed care and nonviolent communication to the workplace. She believes that to truly make meaningful change, we need to acknowledge, include, and uplift everyone in our communities.