Kern County roots drive Cal Chamber CEO

Barrera's career nearly went in an entirely different direction. She originally planned to become an educator like her parents and decided to pursue a bachelor's degree in English at CSUB. She enjoyed her time at the university and appreciates how much it has grown over the years.

"I feel like when you went on the campus, you often saw people on a regular basis that you knew or recognized and there was just that community feeling," Barrera said. "It's cool to see the school change and just grow like crazy. It's great to see all the investment that's going into the campus."

Barrera began pursuing her teaching credential after graduating from CSUB but quickly stopped after she realized that it wasn't the right vocation for her.

"I started doing student teaching and I realized very quickly I was not cut out for that job," she said. "It really does take a special kind of person who has the right balance of patience, which is not necessarily my strength, but it was just clear to me that it was not my calling to be an English teacher."

What wasn't clear to Barrera at the time was what the right career would be. After her father one day suggested that she give law school a try, Barrera applied to multiple schools and ultimately accepted an academic scholarship to attend the California Western School of Law in San Diego.

"As soon as I got into law school, it immediately clicked and I was like, 'Oh, this is absolutely what I want to do and where I should be.' It just kind of all worked for me," she said. "My biggest lesson learned - and what I tell everybody - is instinct is real, and listening to that instinct has served me well in life in a lot of different circumstances. You just know kind of what works and what doesn't work, and you should really tune into that and listen to it."

After receiving her Juris Doctorate from the institution, Barrera initially worked at a law firm in San Diego until moving to Northern California and joining the statewide law firm Carothers, DiSante and Freudenberger LLP in 2003 as a defense attorney. It was a steep learning curve for Barrera, who had to adapt to long hours of often intense work.

Barrera soon found her groove on cases involving labor and employment defense. She would end up working for nearly eight years as a litigator, representing employers in state and federal court on matters such as wage disputes, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination.

"Once I started doing more in the labor and employment area, it just was like really interesting to me and it kind of clicked, and so that was the area of law where I was like, 'I really want to focus on this area and become kind of an expert in it,'" she said.

While being an attorney could be challenging at times, Barrera believes it was a great learning experience that helped prepare her for her future work at Cal Chamber.

"Being an attorney is everything they say it is. It's long hours, it's stressful at times," she said. "There are also big emotions involved in how you can kind of produce the best result for your client, but successfully resolving these complex issues and being a vigorous advocate for your client was also rewarding to me."

While she enjoyed being an attorney and working with her colleagues at Carothers, DiSante and Freudenberger, by 2010 Barrera was feeling that her work-life balance was out of alignment. She felt torn between her work responsibilities and caring for her two young children at home, a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old.

"The demand of being an attorney in litigation and the long hours and stress of it was taking me away from my kids, and that was always my priority - my children and my family. I knew I had to do something different," she said.

Barrera one day came across an advertisement for a position with Cal Chamber and decided to apply. The organization was looking for someone with experience as a labor and employment attorney who could advise on policy and lobby the State Legislature.

"They kind of took a chance on me and said, 'we're going to test this out and see if it works,' and now the rest is history," she said. "It's definitely not the traditional way of how people get hired as a lobbyist. Having somebody coming in from the outside, specifically from the legal world who has no connection to the politics or the legislature, was definitely unique."