Natalie Barrionuevo is the Executive Director of CASA (Court Appointed Special
Advocates) of Bradley and Polk Counties. She holds a Master’s Degree in Executive
Leadership from Liberty University and a Bachelor’s in Crisis Counseling. Mrs.
Barrionuevo is a certified Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) practitioner
through KPICD and holds a certificate in Family Law and Policy through Loyola
University. Mrs. Barrionuevo’s vision for Bradley and Polk Counties is to create a
trauma-informed community to change generational outcomes and equip our children of
today for the future of tomorrow. In 2024 Mrs. Barrionuevo was awarded with top 20
under 40 leaders in the community to watch out for.

Mrs. Barrionuevo began her journey in child welfare in 2018 serving in a role as a
volunteer through CASA of Bradley and Polk Counties. Her experience volunteering
with CASA made her realize that the impact this organization made was something she
wanted to embrace and help grow. Growing up in this community and being a child who
grew up in poverty, abuse and neglect, Mrs. Barrionuevo wanted to be sure that the
gaps that made it impossible for her to get help as a child could be eliminated and every
child had the opportunity for a bright future. Every time Mrs. Barrionuevo saw a gap in
services she began finding creative ways to fill the gap and ensure the children enrolled
in CASA had adequate advocacy and services needed to keep them safe and stable
long term. This work ignited a vision to create a trauma informed community for the
children and families in the community. She knew this would come with obstacles but it
could be integrated little by little. She quickly transitioned into a Volunteer Coordinator
role at CASA where she began assisting the director in growing the program.
During her time as Volunteer Coordinator, Mrs. Barrionuevo began working diligently
throughout the court system and social sectors to bridge the silos that had been created
while steadily serving children and families brought into court due to child abuse and
neglect. At the beginning of this journey Natalie had five advocates who volunteered in
the program to work with the children and families. By 2022, she had grown the
advocacy base into 37 advocates. In 2022, Natalie Barrionuevo took over as the
Executive Director of CASA of Bradley and Polk Counties where she continues to
support her vision of building a trauma-informed community for both Bradley and Polk
Counties.

Mrs. Barrionuevo currently serves on the Tennessee Commission on Children and
Youth regional board where she sits as Vice Chair, she sits as the Co-Chair for Bradley
County Foster Care Review Board and serves as the Secretary for Ocoee Regional
Rotary. Since taking over as Executive Director Mrs. Barrionuevo has created a
mentorship program in CASA that allows CASA to work in Juvenile Justice Courts to
work with children from hard places who are in court due to their own offenses. Through
this program, CASA engrains in these children that your futures can always be brighter
than your past and your mistakes are simply steps to growth. Mrs. Barrionuevo has also
worked with the juvenile courts to expand advocacy into Safe Baby Court, which works
with parents of children three years old and under to provide wrap-around services to
ensure families can reunify and remain stable. These parents usually come from hard
places as well and need mentors in their own way. Mrs. Barrionuevo began providing
parenting classes at no cost to families enrolled in the program to ensure that court
ordered parenting classes were not a barrier to the families working to bring their
children home.

Natalie has worked diligently with juvenile court to help create a trauma informed court
atmosphere for the families and youth it serves. This has been ongoing for over a year
and has now shown that the families CASA works with through these courts are not
returning to court after case closure proving trauma informed courts create safe and
stable environments for the children. With her vast experience in social work depicted
above, the Tennessee Association of School Social Workers has chosen Natalie as the
recipient of the 2025 Beverly Diane Taylor Friend to Children. Join CASA of Bradley and
Polk Counties in celebrating this well-deserved achievement!