Sandra Rodriguez Barron was born in Puerto Rico, has lived in El Salvador, Connecticut, France and the Dominican Republic. The daughter of a Salvadoran mother and a Puerto Rican father, her family moved from El Salvador to Connecticut to avoid the violence of El Salvador's civil war. She earned an undergraduate degree in Communications from the University of Connecticut, and has an MFA from Florida International University, one of the top ten MFA programs in the country. For thirteen years she has worked in the field of charitable, academic and cultural fund-raising. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and son.