We want to take this opportunity to welcome Raquel Barbas to our team as Assistant Director!
As Assistant Director, Raquel works in tandem with our Director to ensure our programs and services meet our strategic objectives. In addition to administrative, program, and personnel management, she helps match our clients to Supported Employment and Community Engagement Specialists, making sure that support services are available to participants as required by their individual service plans.
Raquel earned her Bachelor’s in English with an emphasis in Literature from Cal State Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in Southern California. She then returned to CSUDH and pursued her Master’s in Public Administration (MPA). Her professional background has been primarily in education, having served schools at the second largest school district in the nation, LAUSD. She started as an intensive reading/ math intervention coach for grades K-3 with a focus on at-risk students. She then became a substitute teacher for the district and served in that capacity for six years covering grades K-6, including SPED.
Her enthusiasm for serving people with disabilities became clear when working in this capacity. After obtaining her Master’s, Raquel relocated and accepted a position with the state of Arizona as a Child Safety Specialist for the Department of Child Safety. She recounts her experience as being “challenging but necessary to help people and keep children safe”. Through hard work and dedication, she has found what she truly enjoys doing and has followed her calling here to the pacific northwest and Cascade. She is elated to take on the challenges of this role and looks forward to working with and becoming a part of this tight-knit community.
