Barbara is ILD’s Founding Co-Executive Director who oversees ILD’s Legal-Education Partnership with the California State University (CSU) system, a unique program that provides immigration legal services to students and community members at nine CSU campuses. In this capacity, Barbara works closely with the CSU Dream Centers and CSU Chancellor's Office to organize legal education events, weekly consultations, and direct representation services to CSU community members. 

EXPERIENCE When Barbara was a college student at San Francisco State, she was a beneficiary of the landmark AB540 legislation, which allowed undocumented students at California Universities to pay in-state tuition — making her particularly committed to legal immigration access in higher education. Prior to co-founding ILD, she worked as an immigration attorney at Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Centro Legal de la Raza, where she managed complex government grants, led media and policy work for a large team, and oversaw a Know-Your-Rights project that provided education and training at churches, schools, and community-based organizations. She has also served as the media coordinator for the Northern California Chapter of AILA. She has extensive experience training both attorneys and non-attorneys in direct representation, legal education, and other forms of advocacy and in launching successful community partnerships and collaboratives on behalf of client advocacy and systems change. Barbara specializes in providing direct representation to children, youth, and young adults, including unaccompanied minors and undocumented youth, in both detention and non-detained removal defense, as well as affirmative applications. 

EDUCATION Barbara holds a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from San Francisco State and a J.D. from the University of California College of the Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She is a member of the California bar and is fluent in Spanish.