Ibarra’s first communications job was in 1985 as the Communications Director for the Vice Presidential candidate in Guatemala’s first democratic elections in 15 years.

After graduating from the University of Arkansas, Ibarra returned to Guatemala and began working as General Manager at Ketchum Public Relations, a US public relations firm. She later moved to the US with her husband, a US citizen, who had accepted a position at the University of California at Los Angeles. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Ibarra began by volunteering in bilingual education. She did not want her children to lose their native language after moving to the US and was concerned that they would not do well if they learned only English in school. Through her involvement with other Spanish-speaking parents, Ibarra became aware of environmental justice issues. Though she knew Los Angeles was extremely polluted, she did not realize the extent that the people most affected were people of color, and many of them had no one to turn to for help.

In 2002, Ibarra started her first job in the US at Symantec. The company targets both the Latin American and US Spanish-speaking markets. Ibarra took this job because she felt it would be a beneficial experience to learn how corporations worked from the inside. Ibarra knew from her public relations experience in Guatemala that she was much more interested in clients who worked in social equity and social cost marketing rather than those pursuing corporate, for-profit work. When she realized that Symantec focused its energies on searching for “terrorists” on the internet, she quit her job.

Ibarra then went on to work with various political campaigns. She began volunteering for the Kucinich campaign in Los Angeles because she felt strongly that he was sincere and believed in his position. Within two months, Ibarra was hired as the National Media Outreach Coordinator for the campaign.

In 2004, Ibarra joined Latino Media as the Deputy Communications Director. In this role, she worked on local, state, and national political campaigns. She crafted media communication strategies for Latino audiences, created bilingual campaign materials, and trained media spokespeople to reach Latino audiences.

She left Latino Media in early 2005 and joined the Coalition for Clean Air (CCA) as the Marketing and Community Engagement Manager, a grant-funded position created just for Ibarra. She worked at CCA until 2006. Since she joined CAA, the organization has grown from five to twenty people. Her job was to engage communities of different constituencies – from community members to the Latino media to legislators- and educate them about air, toxics, and environmental justice issues in and around Los Angeles. Ibarra also promoted CCA to the public. She continues to work on increasing public awareness of what the CCA does, hoping to increase the organization’s membership and donor base.

In 2007, Ibarra began freelancing in bilingual and bicultural communications. She had several clients, including the California Nurses Association, California Clean Money Campaign, Coalition for Clean Air, the Hispanic Communications Network, and the Million Voters Project/Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights. 

Ibarra believes that everyone has a voice and deserves to be heard. The highlight of her career has been the opportunity to reach humble people who feel that their stories may never be shared. She specializes in content creation for paid, earned, social, and own media. Her career and life experience, as well as her ability to speak to people in their native tongue, allows people to open up and feel more comfortable. Ibarra believes her most significant achievement to be the role she plays in making it possible for workers to testify in front of legislators. The opportunity she has helped to create—to help people by interpreting what they are saying without changing their words—has empowered many people to feel confident enough to exercise their legal rights. For Ibarra, nothing is better than being able to watch the faces of both sides engaged in dialogue and to watch legislators open their eyes as the workers’ stories unfold, Ibarra says.

Since 2009, Ibarra has used some of her spare time to be a Zumba instructor.

In 2012, Ibarra started working at AARP as the Associate State Director of Communications. She led English and Hispanic programs and campaigns across California. She worked at AARP until 2020. From 2023 to 2023, Ibarra was the Account Director for the Hispanic Communications Network.

In early 2023, Ibarra was appointed deputy director of Spanish language communications by Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles. Ibarra’s decades of experience as a bilingual communications professional with experience in public relations, community outreach, marketing, and nonprofits are valuable for her role.