MEET BARBARA
WORKING FOR FAMILIES AND THE COMMUNITY WE LOVE
I am making this run for FL House District 42 because the current political environment in our state makes me uncomfortable and I have met so many people who feel the same way as me. With this discomfort has come the motivation to step up to serve the people of our community. I am taking this step off the sidelines and into the political arena because I believe together we can bring a better quality of life for all people. In the last 5 years, our district has grown tremendously in size and diversity. I have walked, and continue to walk, the neighborhoods of District 42 and have met incredible people, hard working families who are struggling to make ends meet. People have no adequate health care, and they need doctors and medicine that they can afford. We need to invest in our children’s future, not sell it off to the highest bidder. Together we can bring the change we need and deserve. Let’s do this together!
Barbara's Life
Barbara grew up with the understanding that service to community and country was an important part of being an American. She was born into a military family in the Navy town of Charleston, South Carolina, where her World War II Veteran father was a training instructor for the Navy’s fleet ballistic missile submarine program. Later, Barbara’s family shipped out to serve at the Naval Communication Station in Kenitra, Morocco, followed by an assignment at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Here, her dad, now a Naval intelligence officer, served to protect the United States interests during the Bay of Pigs conflict. (Check out the Christmas post card!)
When the Cuban Missile crisis was heating up, the family was evacuated to
Pensacola, Florida where Barbara began attending Florida public schools.
In her early years she learned the importance of living as a global citizen,
respecting the varied cultures and ways of people around the globe,
while maintaining a strong sense of what it means to be a patriotic American.
With her new-found confidence, she graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA and an Associates in Arts Degree in Humanities in 2012. Barbara particularly enjoyed her cultural anthropology classes. With the encouragement of her professors, she applied as a transfer student to the State University of NY at New Paltz, where she studied Gender and Anthropology. In her course of study, she took part in a difficult but rewarding internship with a local nonprofit agency serving domestic violence survivors. She became well versed in family and rehabilitation counseling. She graduated in 2014 with highest honors (Summa Cum Laude) and a B.A. in Gender Studies and Cultural Anthropology. Barbara says this was a life-changing experience, and cherishes the people she met and the lessons she learned.
Today, Barbara lives in Lake Wales, Polk County. She holds a FL Community Association Manager professional license. Barbara served on the Osceola County Planning/Zoning Commission from 2017 to 2020, and Affordable Housing Advisory Committee as well as the Osceola Children's Cabinet. She is the West Central Director of the Florida Rights of Nature Network, a pro-homerule organization supporting community rights.
Barbara is a mother, a grandmother, a college graduate, a great friend, a kind person and in 2020, she’d like to add “FL House District 42 Representative” to that list.
Remember to vote for Barbara Cady
for State House Representative District 42.
