Rachel received her M.Sc in Human Ecology – Culture, Power, and Sustainability from Lund University in 2018. She has experience as an organizer, presenter, and facilitator for climate, degrowth and integral ecology in both academic and non-academic environments. As the previous organizer for Chicago Area Peace Action, she guided student activists to create a coalition of organizations, companies and religious groups in support of the Green New Deal in Illinois.
As a youth worker with kids children aged 7 – 15 in an immigrant community center, Rachel focused on empowerment through movement, conflict resolution, and self-study. Rachel is a former yoga teacher at the Cook County Jail utilizing meditation, breathwork, and the philosophy of yoga as a form of social activism within the American legal system. Rachel enjoys working specifically at the nexus of politics, society and environment in order to seek justice in both the collective and individual spheres.
Rachel currently works on the Healing Earth team at Loyola University Chicago, a open-access interdisciplinary online textbook combining science, ethics, spirituality and a call to action as it relates to environmental justice. She helps ensure that well-rounded perspectives are included in Healing Earth as it pertains to specific regions, communities, and spiritual paths around the world.
She also is the teaching assistant to the ongoing project within the Ecocene Foundation: Higher Education Course in Integral Ecology.