Rafael is originally from Puerto Rico and moved with his family to the Pacific Northwest from Hawaii after retiring from the Marine Corps Reserve, where he served 25 years of combined military and civil service time, leading US Marines, civilians, and contractor personnel. He retired out of US Indo-PACOM Headquarters as Joint Operations Center Operations Officer, supporting and monitoring joint military operations around the world. He also served as Director of the Command Operations Center, at US Marine Corps Forces Pacific, supporting and monitoring Marine Corps operations and exercises around the world. Rafael has a passion for seeing people excel, he believes in hard work, communication, and integrity in order to establish a foundation for success. He believes those high standards result in strong and long-lasting relationships. Rafael loves to help and inspire people and make a difference in their lives. He loves to travel with his family, loves life and the outdoors and recently learned to ski at Mount Hood, and he is always ready to go fishing if anyone has a boat!