Dr. Joseph C. Barbaccia
Board Member
Dr. Barbaccia is an Emeritus Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Prior to UCSF, he was on the faculty of the Graduate Division of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he also received his Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Stanford and an MD degree from St. Louis University. Dr. Barbaccia is an active volunteer in the Bay Area and has served on the boards of On Lok, Inc. and Scuola di Lingua e Cultura Italiana. In 2003, he was named Cavaliere (Knight) in the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by Carlo Ciampi, President of the Republic of Italy.
Dr. Barbaccia has been a docent at the Garden since 1996 and served as Chair of the Docent Council. His areas of special interest as a docent include the Garden’s world-renowned magnolia collection and the Andean and Mesoamerican Cloud Forest collections. Dr. Barbaccia has a special appreciation for plants of traditional medicinal use as well as poisonous plants. Joining the Board in 1998, he served as Chair from 2002 to June 2004, and was appointed a Life Trustee in 2010.