He graduated from Baylor University in 1989 with a B.A. in Economics. After working in management at West Bend de Mexico, a maquiladora based in McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, he enrolled in the MBA program at the University of Texas – Pan American in 1990. In 1991 he then enrolled in law school at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. In 1994 he graduated from both the University of Texas – Pan American and from Texas Southern University Law School with a Masters in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate, respectively. Mr. Barrera graduated in the top 11 percent of his law school class, served as a law clerk at the Texas Supreme Court, and was voted in by his peers as the Articles Editor of the Thurgood Marshall Law Review. He was also inducted into the Phi Delta Phi Legal Honor Society.