Eduardo I. Diaz is the Executive Director of Dade County’s Independent Review Panel (IRP), which hears citizen complaints regarding County departments or staff.  His department is charged with formulating corrective actions and process improvements.  He formerly served as Coordinator of Program Evaluation and Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice System Support (DJSS) and as the Director of the Crime and Delinquency Prevention Division of the Department of Justice Assistance (DJA), operating multiple programs targeting special populations. 

Diaz was born in Cuba and raised by Cuban Quaker parents.  He attended Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., a small Quaker liberal arts school.  There, he awakened academically at a relatively late age. He was awarded a Special University Fellowship to attend graduate school at the Ohio State University, finalizing a Master’s degree in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1979, both in Psychology.  The emphasis of his training was in Psychophysiology and Counseling. 

In 1980, having taught “Cross Cultural Therapy for the Hispanic” at Ohio State University, he began work with unaccompanied minors that had arrived via the Mariel Boatlift in several refugee camps.  He returned to Miami, having rediscovered his roots, and provided family therapy to clients in the Liberty City and Wynwood areas for the Department of Youth and Family Development. 

He is active advocating for improved police/community relations and a variety of other violence reduction efforts.  He is a member of the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) and serves on the Board of Directors. 

Diaz is a past president of the Mental Health Association and remains an active member of Miami Friends Meeting (Quakers).  He is active in Prison Ministry and in the Clergy Dialogue of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).  He has also served on the Expert Task Force of the People of Color Leadership Institute Project funded by the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, and as a Common Ground Fellow of the University of Miami, School of Continuing Studies, Community Leadership Project.

Deeply interested in violence prevention, he served the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Commission on Violence and Youth as a member of their cadre of Experts.  Diaz is also a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) and APA’s Division of Peace Psychology.  He currently acts as a Lead Facilitator for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP).