Raquel Munarriz Diaz, Ed.D. has extensive expertise in leading professional development (PD) and cultivating strategic relationships. She is a leading voice in implementing Communities of Practice (CoP). She helped design, coordinate, and facilitate one of the nation’s largest CoP certification programs, certifying over 400 professionals across Florida. Her CoP work has also impacted early childcare professionals in GA, CA, MA, and LA. Raquel has lead workforce networks focused on local and community leaders, higher education faculty as well as state organizations addressing workforce issues at the systems level. She co-created and has published on a CoP framework focused on the importance of using content, process, structure, and conditions in order to ensure diverse voices are invited and included to help tackle the adaptive challenges of the early childcare system.

Raquel is a first-generation college graduate, earning her doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction: Early Childhood from Florida International University in 2008. As a life-long learner, Raquel has continued to learn and grow in her field.  In 2002, she became National Board Certified in Early Childhood and was a ZERO TO THREE National Fellow (2018-2020).

Raquel’s passion for the early childhood field extends beyond the day-to-day work of providing intensive and targeted TA. She is passionate about continuing to learn and advocate for the early childhood field. She currently serves as the chair for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Affiliate Advisory Council. She is a member of the Code of Ethics NAEYC workgroup. In 2022, Raquel was elected President for the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children (FLAEYC) - making her the first Latina president in the organization’s 66-year history. Raquel believes in the power of collaborative wisdom and aims to invite and engage diverse voices in order to work as a community to ensure our workforce and young children thrive.