Raquel joined Ad Astra on May 2022 as part of the Grants Management team. With an accounting career spanning over more than a decade, her financial background includes former employment with multinational companies and Big Pharma. Currently, she provides support to the local government on the management and implementation of disaster recovery funds and federal funds. She developed her financial background through engagement in financial reporting, quantitative and statistical analysis, planning, and forecasting, enabling a proactive approach to facilitate executive-level decision-making. Her expertise in disaster recovery funds stems from implementing quality assurance procedures to ensure compliant disbursements of federal funds for the STEP project. Additionally, she led two of the six economic development CDBG-DR programs for the PRDOH Grant Manager, ensuring adherence to all applicable federal and state rules and regulations. In these roles, she has been responsible for strategic leadership, oversight, and management of subrecipients, as well as process improvements.

More recently, she has provided assistance to DTOP, DRNA, PRDF, BDE, and PROMB by defining project scope and objectives, implementing fit-gap analysis projects, identifying discrepancies between current processes and desired outcomes, and providing recommendations, all while ensuring alignment and compliance with local and federal regulations.