Rachel Unkovic is a collaborative and dynamic non-profit management expert with over
18 years of experience implementing, supporting, and leading internationally facing
programs. She is known to think creatively about complex coordination, systems design,
and the criticality of storytelling.
Prior to joining AWIU, Rachel spent six years advising global non-profit directors for
InterAction, undertaking missions to Ukraine, Lebanon, and Myanmar, among other
contexts. She previously led Special Projects at the International Rescue Committee
(IRC), where she ran a variety of initiatives focused on developing and improving
processes, executing events, defining corporate culture, and communicating internally.
She spent three years as a standing member of the IRC’s Emergency Response Team
with deployments to Yemen (2012), Syria (2013), Sierra Leone (2014, during the ebola
outbreak), and elsewhere; three years living in Iraq; and a year in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Earlier in her career, Rachel was a child protection research
associate for World Learning in the Kitgum district of northern Uganda. She also
worked with Tostan in Senegal and the Gambia. Rachel’s first job out of college was as a
middle school teacher in New York State.
Rachel holds a BA in English from Trinity College, an MA in Conflict Transformation
from SIT Graduate Institute, and an MA in Oral History from Columbia University. She
currently resides in beautiful Mt. Pleasant in the District of Columbia (DC) with her
toddler son, the memory of her daughter, and their loyal, funny mutt of a dog.
