Born in Galveston, Texas to a father in the midst of his medical residency and a mother who worked as a nurse in the same hospital, Senator Barbara Bollier’s passion for healthcare is in her blood. When Bollier was a small child, the family moved to Fairway, Kansas, where she lived until she was off to college. Bollier attended the University of Kansas, where she received a Doctor of Medicine degree. Later, she completed her residency in anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine, her father’s alma mater.
As a young physician, Bollier worked in her father’s practice in Kansas City. Eventually, she retired from medicine and began giving back to the community in other ways. She started volunteer work within the Center for Practical Bioethics, and also served on the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation Board. Working closely with these organizations opened her mind to politics, and inspired her to seek out ways in which she could serve her community on a grander scale.
In 2010, the 25th district of the Kansas House of Representatives appointed her to the Kansas Senate to replace Representative Terrie Huntington. Bollier represented the 25th district as a Republican for two years, then served the 21st district until 2017. In 2016, she secured a seat in the State Senate, and soon her political positions began to change. Donald Trump had just been elected as President of the United States, in a campaign that caused many politicians across the country to question what they and their parties actually represented.
In 2018, Bollier officially changed her party affiliation, citing the Kansas Republican Party’s approval of anti-transgender legislation. In response to her change, Bollier replied, "Morally, the party is not going where my compass resides. I'm looking forward to being in a party that represents the ideals that I do, including Medicaid expansion and funding our K–12 schools." Bollier was in good company, being one of three Kansas legislators who decided to follow their moral compasses and make the switch from Republican to Democrat in 2018.