Rafael is deputy director of SUMMA. 

With extensive experience in education policy, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Agency for the Quality of Education for the Chilean Government. He worked for eight years in the Chilean Ministry of Education in various positions, as head of Development of the Education Quality Measurement System, and then as head of the Technical Team of the Minister and Undersecretary overseeing the design and development of educational policies, mainly the Preferential School Subsidy Law, which benefits the most vulnerable students in the country.

He has been a professor at Stanford University and Universidad Alberto Hurtado. He was part of the 2014 National Commission for the reform of the National Accountability System. He was also co-founder of the NGO San Pablo, which provides free preschool education to low-income girls and boys.