Rachel is a young leader with a history of supporting efforts to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, contributing to 100+ projects with 112 organizations across 35 countries. Rachel’s enthusiasm for the SDGs is second only to the causes she cares about within the Goals’ scope. In her entrepreneurial pursuits, Rachel founded the SDG advocacy youth organization Global Futurist Initiative™, the community development consortium Project Energy for Life Cameroon, and her consulting practice. Through consulting, she has worked for institutions such as Sesame Workshop, Johnson & Johnson, Fashion Community Foundation, and Friends of the Global Fund U.S. to foster strategic partnerships for advancing their SDG-aligned objectives. In one of her recent effort as the Foundations Partnerships Consultant for UNICEF USA, Rachel supported a $242 million portfolio by working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and UN Foundation, among others, to align on safeguarding children’s and youth rights worldwide.
Rachel has held appointments that have also enabled her to promote the SDGs including the IMF, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, Foreign Policy for America, AFS Youth Assembly, and United Nations Association of the USA. Rachel currently holds a Visiting Associateship of Policy & Practice at the University of Notre Dame Pulte Institute for Global Development where she is conducting U.S. policy research on the SDGs. Receiving numerous appointments and 31 awards, Rachel is a sought-out speaker and actively contributes to publications on matters concerning youth, sustainable development and human rights.
Born and raised in Northwest Indiana (colloquially referred to as The Region), Rachel received her BS in Chemistry and MBA from Purdue University as well as a MS in Global Health from the University Notre Dame. Receiving the 2023 Purdue Rising Professional honor as a Distinguished Alumna, she is becoming one of Purdue University’s most decorated young alumni with over 10 honors and scholarships throughout her Boilermaker journey.
Small-scale innovations to reduce energy poverty
Prioritizing youth issues in the SDGs
Convening youth to achieve the United Nations SDGs
Mobilizing resources for sustainable good
The United Nations Association of the USA, Global Futurist Initiative, and Accountable Impact are hosting the commemoration event "Intersecting Gender and ICT to Meet the SDGs" for the UN Observance of International Girls in ICT Day. Held annually on the fourth Thursday in April, these organizations aim to raise awareness about the need to have a gender lens in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector and its significance in the pursuit of meeting both Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 Gender Equality and SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals.
The International Telecommunication Union estimates a skills shortfall of over 2 million jobs in ICT within the next 5 years. Girls and young women who learn coding, app development, and computer science will not only be well-placed for a successful career in the ICT sector, but ICT skills are rapidly becoming a strong advantage for students in just about any other field they might choose to pursue. The right to internet access is also becoming more inseparable from human rights including gender equality, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly so discourse has been proliferating across and through these themes which will also be highlighted.
This event therefore will highlight the role gender and ICT has had in the solutions developed for accelerating the SDGs and in the lives of the established and emerging STEM professionals speaking.
The Global Goals Ambassadors (GGAs) are members of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) who take their passion for a particular SDG and leverage it to raise awareness and work to advance the SDGs, engaging with local and global communities and the youth population within them. For the 2024 ECOSOC Youth Forum side event, we aim to achieve these objectives:
The U.S. has been stagnating in social progress since 2011 and actively sliding backward on targets since 2017, which is impacting American youth and putting at risk future generations. While the SDGs aim to serve as an effective alternative to short-term thinking, they have not been framed in a way that inspires trust and effective change with the American public. Therefore, it is with growing impetus that American supporters of the SDGs have been focusing on localization to increase local ownership of the SDGs and rebuild public trust to spur action. This session will highlight experiences about making progress as well as share lessons learned in the pursuit of localizing the SDGs through policy and partnerships.
I was invited to be part of the Major Group for Children and Youth consultations for the United Nations Summit of the Future alongside the Youth for Future Working Group. I predominantly focused on Section 4. Youth and Future Generations, commenting on both the general phrasing as well as made contributions to the wording of each applicable point, which are 15-18 outlined.
I was recently asked to support the Welcome Sesame program with the impact of support families and children affected by crisis. This initiative works on delivering early childhood development (ECD) in fragile contexts, highlighting the needs of children as well as caregivers. Visit their website below for more information
As part of a listening tour by AmeriCorps and The White House, I spoke in support of embracing the SDGs as an integral part of the program to strengthen U.S. global leadership. Three recommendations were made arising from this theme which include leveraging data, co-branding, and academia in support of this mission. My full statement can be read below.
This was my first time participating in a United Nations consultation where I spoke on behalf of Global Futurist Initiative. This consultation session was for Youth and Indigenous groups on the Summit of the Future. It was very humbling and exciting to see so many youth rising to the occasion to safeguard future generations through their voices. Additionally, UN Youth Delegate of Switzerland Arlinda Ramqaj spoke on behalf of our Informal Youth Working Group community of 300 young leaders representing 75 countries.
Key highlights from my latest op-ed include the following:
I was invited to guest lecture for UIC's Global Health Challenges course to share insights on socio-political and economic influences affecting the way global health is perceived and how it translates into investments and public policy. This lecture aims to bridge academia with practice by learning how to use the Foreign Assistance Government budget tracker dashboard and state-level fact sheets that show how each state is shaped by global development in terms of trade, jobs, and studying abroad.
I was selected as one of six finalists to compete for the AFS Young Global Citizen Award sponsored by DHL and presented by AFS Intercultural Programs. The AFS Award for Young Global Citizens recognizes young people for their commitment to improving the global community and whose actions contribute to a more just, peaceful, and tolerant world. The Award will be awarded to a Youth Assembly delegate who demonstrates how their project is successfully addressing a pressing global issue, tackling one or more of the challenges outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and what this translates into in real-life impacts.
I was recently selected to join the Pulte Institute's Policy and Practice Visiting Associates Program to collaborate on addressing today's most compelling global issues. Visiting Associates can visit campus or participate in a variable-length hybrid residency, which includes a short campus visit. Visiting Associates works with the Pulte Institute to write evidence-based, strategic publications to positively influence global development policy and practice. My work will focus on H.Res.30 Supporting the United Nations SDGs.
As part of the US Global Leadership Coalition’s Global Impact Forum, I was back on Capitol Hill just two days after my first visit on behalf of UNA-USA to support a strong commitment to maintaining the international affairs budget as a matter of national security, economic prosperity, and strong leadership on the global stage. Pictured right is alongside me, my team of Indiana-based advocates who traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with state representatives in the House and Senate.
Learn what metrics of success I use to communicate an initiative's efficacy.
Always advocating for a cause, listen to efforts I support and speak out about.
See the programs my experience as a leader has enabled me to implement.
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