Dr. Barreras is a Professor, researcher, community advocate, and so much more. Her scholarly work focuses on addressing comorbidities and disparities linked to HIV among Latinx. Specifically, she aims to develop and test culturally responsive interventions to improve health and health care service utilization among vulnerable populations.

She is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach (BA in Psychology), California State University, Los Angeles (MSW), and the University of California, Los Angeles (PhD in Social Welfare). She is the daughter of immigrant parents and was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. Dr. Barreras is fluent in Spanish and was also the first person in her immediate and extended family to attend college (but not the last). She highlights that mentorship plays an instrumental role in her development. She loves spending time with her son and hiking during her free time.