Meet Raquel Ibarra, MSW: NASW-CA’s New Membership Engagement Manager!

Raquel Ibarra, MSW (she/her/ella) was recently hired as the Member Engagement Manager for the NASW-California Chapter (NASW-CA)! We would like to give a warm welcome to Raquel and share some of her background and experience with you. Raquel joined the NASW-CA this month and will be a valued thought partner on our membership and advocacy teams. She will lead a variety of strategies to recruit and engage NASW-CA members at all levels of social work practice, and will develop our grassroots advocacy program so that social workers throughout California can be more involved in policy change.

Raquel was born in Los Angeles, CA to immigrant parents from Ecuador. She spent most of her life in Lawndale, CA before moving to Inglewood where she now resides. Raquel’s career in social work has taken her from direct service work all the way through to grassroots advocacy, where her passion lies. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2017 and then her Masters of Social Work degree in 2020 from California State University, Long Beach. Raquel has nearly a decade of non-profit experience advocating for access to reproductive health, school-based mental health, and racial equity. Throughout her various roles, she has used social work values to guide her decision-making and ensure her approach is people-centered. Raquel is deeply passionate about anti-racist work, intersectional feminism, and dismantling patriarchal systems in order to see people from all walks of life truly thrive. In the future, she hopes to complete a PhD program, run for local office in her community, and bring the social work perspective to public policy by working with elected officials.