She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Combined Social Sciences from UC Santa Barbara in 1980 and her Master’s Degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminology from CSU Northridge in 1982. She began working for BSS in January 1988, initially hired as Program Director to operate the 112 bed Orion Re-entry work furlough program. Through the years, Bari was charged with program development and operational oversight of BSS’s California programs. Most recently, in March 2010, she became responsible for program development and operational oversight of all programs, company-wide.