About Me
Why I do what I do
Throughout my career, I have learned that making a real difference for communities requires addressing a problem's root cause. Oftentimes, there is no single solution, and no solution is the same. I like to compare humanitarian work to composing music (digging into my roots as a pianist and thespian). Communities may have similar tones yet march to their own rhythm. My professional experiences can best be described as helping to symphonize a community's song. Therefore, while my personal journey is not composed as a singular melody, it is a harmony of different paths coming together.
My resounding passion for dedicating myself to community-centered social causes became my conviction after I learned how one person’s choices can affect many lives. From overcoming the loss of a parent from substance abuse at a young age, family conflict, and homelessness, I have acquired insights and empathy to be able to help other vulnerable people striving for a fresh start. My firm belief is that resilience gives us the strength to keep moving forward and that is how, together, we can make the changes we want to see in this world. Therefore, I do what I do because my past is my truth, and while I cannot change history, I can compose new songs to sing about a better future.
Photo: Rachel's first global health trip abroad and first air travel experience (May 2015)
Work History & Academics
UNICEF USA
- Stewarded relationships with leading funding partners such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and UN Foundation to manage and support portfolio of $241.5+ million with a focus on global health, policy & advocacy, climate change, gender and innovation
- Served as thought partner to leadership for driving organizational alignment across strategies, workstreams, and systems to operationalize organization goals and reach mutual partnership objectives
- Supported development of proposals, budgets, reports, and track implementation progress, funds utilization, and progress toward achievement of project milestones and results helping to exceed fundraising goals by over $70 million
- Liaised with UNICEF headquarters, National Committees and Country Offices, and internally with other UNICEF USA departments to leverage all organization assets to maximize opportunities
- Identified, analyzed, and helped develop strategic funding initiatives with current and new partners
- Conducted stakeholder mapping, engagement, and management using various techniques for analysis to identify entry points for building relationships, manage, and/or keep informed of
InternetBar.Org Institute Executive Director
- Developed, executed, and oversaw portfolio of 8 initiative plans, including managing timelines, workplans, and deliverables to impact 500,000 beneficiaries
- Closed partnerships with 10 enterprises
- Collaborated with International Monetary Fund through youth fellowship program with 0.85% acceptance rate to find correlations between digital identity and digital economies
Johnson & Johnson CaringCrowd Programs Lead
- Directly oversaw portfolio of 150+ nonprofits to ensure successful fundraising campaigns (100% personal success rate with 50 campaigns at $300,000 and decrease in assessment time by 50% average)
- Implemented promotion program to bring awareness about community through press releases and podcast partnership
J.B. Dondolo, Inc. Strategy & Research Head
- Managed team of 4 interns and assistants in strategic reporting that led to organization's first academic publication and annual report
- Developed and executed 2021 Texas winter storm relief campaign that provided 30,000 feminine hygiene products, 100 face masks, and 100 sanitation supplies to underserved women and girls
- Led initiative to become United Nations Global Water Partner
Consultant
- UNICEF-USA - grant management for foundation partnerships
- Fashion Community Foundation - social enterprise development
- Re+connect - fundraising development
- The Collaboratory - social media and marketing
- Human Computation Institute - crowdfunding development
- The Trebuchet - strategic operations and recruitment
Advisory Board Service
- Purdue University Student Life Young Alumni Advisory Board
- Student Pugwash USA
- Consortium for Health Action
- J.B. Dondolo, Inc.
Local Volunteering
- The Ventilator Project
- Diversity Roundtable, Greater Lafayette, Chamber of Commerce
- Indiana University Health Arnett Hospital, Emergency Department
- St. Thomas Aquinas Church/Habitat for Humanity
- Hanna Community Center
- It’s My Closet Homeless Shelter
Student Pugwash USA Deputy Director
- Led in Board fundraising campaign with 260% increase ($1,015) from previous year’s campaign
- Doubled fundraising ($32,000) from recruiting sponsors for conferences in 2 years
- Boosted attendance by 67% as principal organizer and promoter of 3 annual conferences
- Cultivated and vetted over 50 conference, workshop, and lecture series speakers, representing 10 states and 2 countries increasing diversity of speakers by 61% over past 5 years
Purdue Krannert Grant Associate and Program Assistant
- Worked with faculty teams across universities in writing, editing, and document development of large-scale, interdisciplinary research and programmatic $1.5 million proposal for Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program
- Improved student learning for Krannert’s Navigating Gender in the Workplace course
- Led report development with 6 volunteers for university-wide diversity and inclusion initiative presented to Provost
- Created strategic proposal to accelerate growth of diversity and inclusion recruitment, retention, and success at Krannert
University of Notre Dame Graduate Researcher
- Defended capstone research thesis on systematic review of past Ebola virus disease outbreak case studies to find significant associations between symptoms and survivorship
- Assisted in fundraising $26,000 in 3-week campaign to provide medical supplies in collaboration with the Sisters Mission Hospital Outreach for Ebola outbreak relief in West Africa
- Trained supervisor to install and troubleshoot HPLC instruments in Eldoret, Kenya, and wrote procedure manual
Education
- Master of Business Administration, Purdue University, 2018
- Master of Science in Global Health, University of Notre Dame, 2015
- Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Purdue University, 2014 (Top 10 graduating senior of 10,000+ cohort)