From left, new officer for the California Association of Realtors include Heather Ozur, Mark Peterson, and President Melanie Barker of Oakhurst. C.A.R. image

The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) has announced its 2024 leadership team, with Central Valley native Melanie Barker serving as C.A.R. president. Barker has been a licensed Yosemite-area realtor for two decades. 

Serving with Barker are President-elect Heather Ozur, Treasurer Mark Peterson, and CEO John Sebree. The 2024 officers begin their official term this week at the close of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Conference and Expo held in Anaheim.

Barker is co-owner of Summit Real Estate, a sales and property management company in Oakhurst along with her mother, Jan Ramos. As a U.S. Navy veteran, she was a quartermaster handling the ship’s navigation duties.

 

Barker has been a C.A.R. director since 2007 at the state level, serving on numerous committees in various capacities. Most recently, she was  public policy liaison. Barker served as president-elect in 2023.

At the national level, Barker has been active with the NAR’s board of directors since 2012. She served as its federal finance housing policy chair in 2021. Her service to organized real estate began almost immediately upon becoming a Realtor when Barker volunteered as government affairs director of the Yosemite Gateway Association of Realtors from 2006-2008. 

She was the 2008 and 2015 president of the local association, which merged with the Fresno Association of Realtors in 2016. She served on the association’s board of directors from 2016 to 2019 and as its treasurer in 2020.

Barker is a member of NAR’s President’s Circle and, in 2021, was inducted into NAR’s Realtors Political Action Committee Hall of Fame. She has served on the Women’s Council of Realtors in California and was twice named Realtor of the Year in 2006 and 2019.

Her involvement in the community includes serving the Mountain Area Youth Organization in Oakhurst, where she has been active on its board since 2011 and served as its president from 2013-2015. She was the 2020 Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year and the Chamber’s 2018 president.