Joshua V. Barr
Barr with the Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission team
Joshua V. Barr
Age: 38
Title: Director, Des Moines Civil and Human Rights Commission
Family: Wife Lorena Alomia
A reason why he is a Forty: Community engagement has improved during his time as director at the Civil Rights Commission, leading to a 170 percent increase in the number of civil rights complaints.
What drives him: After returning to South Carolina and his grandparents’ community to practice law, a man told him during an interview, “There has to be someone getting rich off all this poverty.”
“Those words have stuck with me and I work hard every day to do what I can to improve life opportunities for impoverished persons because the world treats poor people horribly,”
Barr said.
An interesting fact about Barr: He spent two years in Cali, Colombia, which he said changed his life.