About

It all started when…

If you have made it this far, you have probably taken a peek at my LinkedIn, so let me start at the beginning. I was born and raised in South Florida and named after Rachel Carson. I was a scholarship kid at a non-sectarian private school, so all the trappings of wealth were around me while I went home to entertain myself as an only child, catching lizards, reading books and riding my bicycle. 

Fast forward to my undergraduate years, where I studied Environmental & Biological Science at Antioch College because I wanted to understand the root causes of impacts to the environment, not just what people were saying about them. After graduation, I worked a few years at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, earning my Master's in Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maryland along the way. After years of field research, I shifted to focus on efforts on solving, instead of just studying environmental issues. I traveled to San Diego to apply the skills I learned to outreach and project management for nonprofit organizations, such as San Diego Coastkeeper and the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, and government agencies such as the Environment Department at the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians and the Watershed Protection Program at the County of San Diego. 

The next gap I identified that I wanted to fill in my own learning and education was nonprofit management, since many organizations I worked at were well-intentioned, but led by staff that didn't understand the importance of boards, leadership and the tools to keep an organization moving forward. I returned to school once again while working full-time to earn a Master's in Nonprofit Leadership Management from the University of San Diego. This fantastic program follows a consultancy model, so by the time I graduated, I had worked with a variety of nonprofits to make a difference in their strategic planning, financial management, legislative advocacy and fundraising.

While San Diego is a lovely place, my husband graduated with his PhD in Marine Microbiology so off we moved to Greater Boston so he could begin work at MIT. We rented a place sight unseen in Somerville, MA and I settled into a position as Regional Program Manager at the Earthwatch Institute. I started managing the Americas portion of a $35M grant from HSBC to incorporate knowledge of climate change and sustainability into the core of their business. Gradually, with my team, I took on other corporate sustainability programs for businesses like E&Y and Alcoa, in addition to a new Freshwater Program for HSBC. By the time I left Earthwatch for my next opportunity, I was managing the team that took on all the corporate, teacher and student programs sending regular people to assist scientists to collect data around the world.

After working four years managing a team working at the forefront of citizen science nationally and internationally, I decided it was time to return to the placebased work that I had enjoyed in San Diego. I was hired by the incredible board chair Jim Rooney to lead the Friends of Fort Point Channel as Executive Director. This was, and continues to be, a time of explosive growth for the area around the Fort Point Channel, and the Friends were essential for making the Fort Point Channel a destination for ALL of Boston, through events, marketing and serving as a point of collaboration and convening for Fort Point Channel placemaking efforts. 

In 2018, I departed the Friends to start RacheB Consulting to bring mission-based strategic based programming to more organizations around Boston and beyond. I continue to be involved in the Boston Harbor Ecosystem Network and Chair of the Somerville Conservation Commission to keep grounded in science-based placemaking work.