Nicole Raphiel joined the DeSoto City Council on February 20, 2018, when she was sworn-in to fill the vacancy in Place Three created by the departure of three-term City Council Member Deshaundra Lockhart Jones. Raphiel, a former chair of DeSoto’s Park Development Corporation Board, won the February 3rd special election to fill the remaining portion of Jones' term which runs through May 2019. Councilmember Raphiel has been a proud homeowner in DeSoto for more than two decades and is an active member at her longtime church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a proud mother of three young adults.