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Manny Diaz – (serves as Commissioner of Education, 6/01/2022) For nearly 20 years, Diaz has been highly involved in Education, first serving as a Teacher and Coach at Miami Springs Senior High and Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High.

Manny Diaz, Jr. has since served in a leadership capacity as an Assistant Principal at Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High for seven years. A native of Hialeah, he has worked with the youth of this community as a Teacher, Coach and Administrator over his entire career. He was a founding partner of the Beyond the Bell Learning Center in Miami Springs, Florida. Manny graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources/Education from St. Thomas University, a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern and completed the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Education Principal’s Summer Institute in 2006.

In 2012, Diaz was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. Subsequently re-elected in 2014 and again in 2016. He was appointed as Chair of the Choice and Innovation Subcommittee, sat on the Education Committee, K-12 Subcommittee, Education Appropriation Subcommittee, and the Health Innovation Subcommittee. In 2016, he was appointed as Chair of the PreK-12 Education Appropriations Committee.

In 2018 Manny was elected to the Florida Senate. During first two years in the Senate he was the Chair of the Education Committee, Vice Chair of the Appropriations Sub Committee on Education, Appropriations Subcommittee Health and Human Services, Ethics and Elections Committee, Health Policy Committee and Joint Select committee on Collective Bargaining. During his last two years of his first term, he was the chair of the Health committee, Vice Chair of the appropriations subcommittee in Education, member of the Appropriations Committee, Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, Education and Rules.

At the end of his first Senate term in 2022, he was appointed Commissioner by Governor Ron DeSantis and confirmed by the Florida Board of Education.