Robert Barra is an educator and an environmental scientist. He taught public and private schools in the U.S. and The Netherlands. In 2001 he was working as an environmental scientist when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. He led a disaster recovery team at Ground Zero for six months. In 2003 he moved to The Netherlands where he worked in competence development for the IKEA organization. He traveled in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America for business and pleasure. He is an avid motorcyclist, wilderness canoe and camping enthusiast who paddled the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in the North Maine Woods more times than he can count and the Yukon River from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Dawson City on the Klondike. He retired in 2018. In the summer of 2019 he spent two months riding a motorcycle, camping and talking to Americans. He traveled from Massachusetts to California and back to relearn what it was like to be an American.