Barbara R. Barreno-Paschall

Barbara Barreno-Paschall is a commissioner with the State of Illinois Human Rights Commission following her appointment by Governor JB Pritzker in 2019. As a commissioner, Barbara adjudicates complaints of discrimination filed under the Illinois Human Rights Act. She also chairs the Commission’s Technology Committee.

Prior to her appointment last year, Barreno-Paschall worked as a senior staff attorney at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and as an associate at Sidley Austin LLP. At Sidley, she received the firm’s Thomas H. Morsch Award for Pro Bono Achievement for her representation of immigrants seeking asylum.

Barreno-Paschall serves as a board member of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and Harvard Alumni for Global Women’s Empowerment and is a member of the Harris Alumni Council. In 2018, she was elected as a community representative on the Kenwood Academy High School Local School Council. She is also a recipient of awards from Chicago Scholars, Negocios Now, and the Hispanic National Bar Association. In 2022 she was awarded the Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund.

Barreno-Paschall received her BA in social studies from Harvard College, her JD from Vanderbilt Law School, where she served as executive editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and chair of the National Latina/o Law Student Association, and her MPP from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.