Flor grew up in Guatemala City. She is a licensed architect in Guatemala and has been designing in Vermont since 1997. She studied at Francisco Marroquin Architecture School in Guatemala, at Texas A&M, and in Chicago, and she won a scholarship to the Prince of Wales Urban Task Force in 1996. She came to Vermont for an internship at a local architectural firm and fell in love with both Vermont and her future husband.
She started her own design studio, diazsmithSTUDIO, to create more time for family and for community volunteering. Her design studio consults with other architects on interior, residential, school, and retail design. Residential and interior design are her passions, but she also enjoys small commercial and retail design.
Flor’s other big passion is education. She believes that education is a human right and spends a lot of time learning and understanding how to support all kids and how to have a stronger public education and childcare system. A strong public education is the basis of our democracy and the key to successful communities. Flor has served on several boards that support public education. She is the chair of Washington Central Unified Union School District (WCUUSD), clerk of Central Vermont Career Center School District, and a member of the task force on Diversifying the Educator Workforce in New England and Vermont. She is vice president of the Vermont School Boards Association and serves on the National School Board Association.
She and her husband Dan live at a farmhouse in East Montpelier with their children Mia, Isabella, and Lincoln.
