Raquel Fernandez Makarov is a Venezuela-born immigrant with over a decade of experience in organizing, campaigning, and public service across environmental, political, and governmental spaces. Raquel most recently served as Organizing Capacity Director at the Sierra Club, where she led a national team of senior organizers, strengthened grassroots and federal organizing across dozens of chapters, and helped lead large-scale, justice-centered mobilizations. Her career spans leadership roles in regional and national climate justice efforts, bilingual field management in Florida and Puerto Rico, and frontline organizing through the Beyond Coal campaign, as well as political organizing in statewide and congressional races and public service at the local government level. She holds a B.S. in International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of Central Florida and completed executive education in Leadership, Organizing, and Action at the Harvard Kennedy School. Raquel lives in Central Florida, where she enjoys spending time with her son, family, and her local Jewish community.