Samantha Barbee joined the International Youth Foundation in January 2001, serving as Director of Operations before becoming CFO in January 2004. Before coming to IYF, she worked as a senior associate at La Piana Associates, Inc, a firm specializing in strategic restructuring for nonprofit organizations, and prior to that as Associate Director of the Nonprofit and Public Management Program and the Director of MBA Student Services at Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.

Samantha grew up in Costa Rica and received her undergraduate degree in government at Georgetown University. Before moving to California to pursue an MBA from Haas, Samantha worked for a consulting firm that managed the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program of the United States Department of Justice. There she served as a Field Representative throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean and as the Country Program Director in Bogota, Colombia.