Joshua Barr, DEIJ Advisor

Joshua V. Barr is an Emmy and national award-winning, transformational leader, human rights attorney, training people in all 50 states and 5 continents. After trying to force a corporate career, he chose to pursue his true passion: working to create a fairer world for all people. Joshua has worked on policy change at the local, state, and federal levels as a civil and human rights executive director, attorney, and consultant. His Bridging the Gap initiative while serving as a civil & human rights director for the City of Des Moines, Iowa utilized community dialogues to craft, develop, and implement 25 new city policies and practices designed to improve community-government relations and help residents move up the socioeconomic ladder. In 2020, Joshua debuted his Emmy award-winning documentary, Breaking Bread, Building Bridges, where nearly 40 strangers were matched up based on their differences to have dinners together over the course of a few months to determine if they could find common ground despite their differences. Joshua now serves as the Chief Strategist and President of his own organization, Raising The Barr, where he collaborates with and counsels government entities and other organizations that are committed to transforming their cultures and improving socioeconomic outcomes for their community stakeholders. In this role, Joshua developed the Citizen Participation & Equitable Engagement (CPEE) Toolkit for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Block Grant Development Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program and continues to conduct community dialogues around the country in his ongoing efforts to make every corner of the country a better place.