Nicole P. Barraza is originally from Nogales, Sonora and is a graduate of Salpointe Catholic High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wellesley College, and her Master’s and Ph.D. from Stanford University in Sociolinguistics and Modern Peninsular Literature.

Prior to joining SALC, Barraza was a Spanish instructor at Pima Community College and in the Critical Languages Program at the University of Arizona. She was in the inaugural class of the Civic & Political Leadership Academy, a program of the Rothschild Fund for Civic Innovation. She was a 2020 Flinn-Brown Fellow and subsequently selected by the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership at the Flinn Foundation to join the Fellows Council. She serves on the St. Cyril School Advisory Board and on the Board of Tucson Young Professionals. In May 2022 she was appointed by Governor Ducey to the Pima County Commission on Trial Court Appointments.