​Massimo Barra was born in Rome in 1947 and graduated in medicine with honors in 1972. He has dedicated his life to two great causes: the Red Cross and the rehabilitation of drug addicts. He joined the Red Cross when he was eight years old, and held various positions up to the highest levels in Italy (National President) and internationally (President of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross and Red Crescent).

He is currently the National President Emeritus of the Italian Red Cross. During his service he participated in rescue operations during major emergencies in times of peace and war, in Italy and abroad, including the Florence flood, the Belice, Friuli, Irpinia, Umbria and Marche earthquakes, and the conflicts in Afghanistan (Kabul), Iraq (Baghdad and Nassiryia), Lebanon (Beirut) and Palestine (Ramallah). He has carried out missions in over 120 countries on all continents. Since 1974 he has been treating drug addicts, first at the Social Diseases Center of the Municipality of Rome, then from 1976 at the Villa Maraini center he founded.He is the author of hundreds of articles, speeches and printed publications, dealing with the Red Cross and the humanitarian policy on drugs he promotes.

He was the first in the world to promote the use of Naloxone by non-medical personnel in case of overdose. This has made it possible to save over 3,000 patients on the streets of Rome.He has repeatedly spoken at institutional venues at the UN (New York, Geneva and Vienna), the Council of Europe, and the European, Italian and Brazilian parliaments. He has been a member of the Global Fund Board of Directors. Within the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, he is President of the Partnership on Substance Abuse and Honorary President of ERNA (the European Red Cross network for HIV, hepatitis and drugs). Massimo Barra is also the creator of the Manifesto “For a humanitarian policy on drugs – Rome Consensus”, presented to the United Nations in Vienna in 2020.