As Acting Director, Rafael oversees the Department’s international activities and education diplomacy efforts, as well as the Department’s role in supporting the interagency Joint Statement on International Education. His areas of responsibility include managing the Department’s participation in various multilateral forums and overseeing bilateral engagement with a broad range of countries. Rafael also leads the Department’s work on academic and professional mobility. He serves as the U.S. representative to the European Network of Information Centers (ENIC), which promotes the recognition of education qualifications across borders.
Prior to joining the Department in 1998 as a Presidential Management Fellow, Rafael was a public school teacher in Sacramento, California and worked in international trade promotion for the State of California. Rafael holds undergraduate degrees from Sacramento City College and California State University Sacramento, and a graduate degree in education from Chapman University. He also completed studies in international affairs at the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar.