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.
