Contributor

Raquel Regalado

Board member, Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Raquel Regalado is a lifelong resident of the Miami‐Dade County School Board District 6, which encompasses the areas of Key Biscayne, the Roads, East Little Havana, Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, South Miami and Westchester. On the Board, Ms. Regalado chairs the Facilities and Construction Reform Committee, and serves as a member of the Instructional Excellence & Community Engagement, School Support & Accountability, and Innovation, Efficiency & Governmental Relations committees. She is also the School Board’s representative at the MDCPS Treasury Committee.

A parent of a child with Autism, at the School Board Ms. Regalado has championed programs and services for special needs students. Recently, she secured funding from Humana for Sensory Rooms which will open this summer for special needs children at three Miami‐Dade County Elementary Schools. She has also solidified, for several years, the district’s relationship with UM/NSU Card and the Department of Children and Families. As an advocate of public/private partnerships, Ms. Regalado has worked with countless organizations to procure everything from a playground for Citrus Elementary to supplies for art classes in challenged middle schools and book bags for elementary aged students. Ms. Regalado is on the boards of Autism Speaks, the Chapman Partnership and the Miami Children’s Initiative. She also serves on the executive committee of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami‐Dade County, whose educational initiatives include a visit to the center by every fifth grader in the district.

As an intellectual property litigator, Ms. Regalado came to the School Board with a keen interest in technology. She successfully advocated for the MDCPS’s first ever social media policy, now a model for school districts around the nation. Her initiatives regarding technology have also resulted in the elimination of the Districts Internet Black List and the creation of a district approved site for curriculum approved resources e.g. Ted Talks and the Khan Institute. Ms. Regalado has sponsored and participated in MDCPS’s first ever twitter town hall meeting at her alma matter, Coral Gables High which educated parents about MDCPS bond initiative. Ms. Regalado is currently leading an initiative with private partners to teach the basics of computer programing, also known as Code, to all MDCPS students. Ms. Regalado has also organized several law days throughout the district for residents and parents to meet with pro bono attorneys and government agencies where participants receive advice regarding issues ranging from foreclosure and landlord tenant rights to disability benefits.

As a School Board Member, she has paved the way for improvements in district wide transportation and brought to the board a five year plan which resulted in the replacement of old and inefficient school buses with energy efficient buses that exceed the state’s safety requirements. As a member of the Southeast Florida Regional Partnership Executive Committee, she helped devise the Seven50 plan to secure the economic future and improving the quality of life in the seven‐county region comprising Monroe, Miami‐Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties during the next 50 years and beyond.

At the national level, Ms. Regalado has participated in programs regarding comprehensive immigration reform and the school districts role in assimilation and English learning. As a board member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Ms. Regalado has spoken nationally on the need for immigration reform and on juvenile justice and the benefits of Florida’s civil citation alternative. As a Hispanic English learner, Ms. Regalado has also been an advocate for bilingual education, a frequent speaker at conferences to explain public education from an English learners’ perspective, debunk the myth that English learners are not academic achievers; and championed the important role that bilingual education will have in Florida’s new economy.

A graduate of Coral Gables High, Ms. Regalado attended Miami‐Dade Community College and then Florida International University, earning a degree in Liberal Studies with honors, earning a Juris Doctorate degree from St. Thomas University School of Law. At St. Thomas, she was the recipient of the Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers Division Scholarship and winner of the St. Thomas University School of Law C. Clyde Atkins Memorial Moot Court Competition and American Trial Lawyers Association Open/Close Competition. Ms. Regalado was a member of the St. Thomas Law Review and the Moot Court Team.

Ms. Regalado is admitted to practice law in Florida state courts and in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Ms. Regalado is an active member of several bar associations, including the American Bar Association, Cuban American Bar Association, and is the member of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Florida. She was an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus. Ms. Regalado was named a Rising Star in Intellectual Property Litigation by Florida Trend magazine and named among the top 40 attorneys in Miami‐Dade County under 40 years old by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Since 2009, Ms. Regalado has conducted a daily Spanish language radio program on La Poderosa, 670 AM, dedicated to informing listeners about local politics, education and social services. Another of her projects is Esta Semana con Raquel, a weekly television show with political and news analysis, airing on Telemiami throughout the state of Florida. Interview from Esta Semana con Raquel can be seen on http://www.youtube.com/user/RaquelitaRegalado/videos. Ms. Regalado also writes for El Nuevo Herald and the Huffington Post and has contributed to the Miami Herald, El Diario de las Americas, Libre, Libertad News and Miami's Community Papers. Having written dozens of articles, her latest ones can be found on http://raquelregaladoopinions.blogspot.com/. Finally, Ms. Regalado is a member of the Community Advisory Board of WLRN, Channel 17, in Miami, Florida.

Ms. Regalado is the proud mother of two children and the daughter of Tomas Regalado, the Mayor of the City of Miami.

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