Rafael has over 25 years of experience crafting and implementing national and international public relations and crisis communications initiatives, working across both Republican and Democratic administrations and campaigns. Rafael has spent his career at the intersection of government communications, policy and crisis management, shaping how the public understands complex policy decisions during some of the nation’s highest-stakes moments. Since 1998, he has served in three presidential administrations as a White House spokesman and media strategist for a wide array of issues including criminal justice, national security, public health, border security, immigration reform and national disaster response. In the course of his work, Rafael has advised Cabinet-level presidential advisers, senior White House and administration staff, and celebrities on media outreach activities executed across the United States and internationally.

After serving as a career communicator in public service for almost a decade for the White House Drug Policy Office, Rafael was appointed by President Obama in 2009 as senior adviser for media and communications for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Department of Homeland Security. At CBP, Rafael promoted efforts to expand travel, trade, border security and immigration reform initiatives for the nation’s largest law enforcement agency. At CBP, he also supported crisis response efforts for the U.S. response to the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 and the Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253.

In 2010, Rafael returned to the White House to serve as associate director for public affairs for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. During his time at the White House, he directed the administration’s efforts to promote major initiatives to expand public health and safety programs designed to implement drug policy and criminal justice reform, and pioneered the use of YouTube, blogging and podcasting to reach new audiences.

In 2014, Rafael was appointed by President Obama to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as director of public affairs. As the agency’s top spokesperson, Rafael oversaw all aspects of the agency’s social and traditional media outreach, including innovative disaster response technologies working to improve the ability of Americans to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards. He directed all public affairs efforts for the federal government in response to Hurricane Matthew and the 2016 flooding disasters in Louisiana and South Carolina. Rafael also oversaw development of FEMA’s crisis communications response to the Ebola outbreak, the Flint contaminated water crisis and the surge of unaccompanied children crossing the southwest border.

Throughout his career, Rafael has worked to merge communications, culture and technology to deliver integrated communications campaigns. At FEMA, Rafael pioneered FEMA’s first use of Snapchat and Facebook Live, along with content contribution on other emerging social platforms for the federal agency. Rafael maintains strong relationships with influential reporters, thought leaders, influencers and former administration officials at major print, broadcast, radio, television and web-based outlets. He has landed feature stories and profiles across top-tier outlets — The Washington Post, The New York Times — as well as wire services, regional and local media, social platforms and influencers, and digital news nationwide.

Rafael currently serves as director of strategic communications and policy for Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare. Prior to that, he served as communications director for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the chief executive for the third-largest county in the U.S. and the largest in Texas. Across his time in Harris County, Rafael has led crisis communications responses to some of the region’s most high-profile emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Astroworld concert tragedy and the high-profile ICE killing in Houston.

Rafael holds a master’s degree in communications, culture and technology from Georgetown University, where he conducted research on the impact of social media technologies on contemporary American politics, and a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University, where he double majored in media arts and design and political science. In 2006, Rafael also completed the Architecture Career Discovery program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He has two children and lives in Houston.