Rachel joins the GHD program after nearly two years in Burkina Faso where she founded an entrepreneurship accelerator program for women and girls in high-risk communities. A dual citizen of Brazil and the United States, Rachel is fluent in Portuguese and proficient in French and Spanish. Rachel completed her undergraduate degree in International Business and Finance from Stetson University. After graduation, she earned a graduate certificate from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Fixed Income Securities, Debt Markets, and the Macroeconomy. Rachel’s professional experiences have broadened her understanding of business development while increasing her passion for global gender issues, particularly human trafficking and gender-based violence. Prior to moving to West Africa, Rachel served in a leadership capacity on the Space Coast Human Trafficking Task Force, where she led initiatives to increase access to victim services, including the development of an online platform to be used by law enforcement agencies across the state of Florida. Concurrently, Rachel worked as a financial analyst for Embraer, managing a yearly budget of $25M. From 2012-13, Rachel trained local businesses in Costa Rica and Panama to advance their financial management skills and marketing strategies. Rachel’s early experiences with microfinance in Africa ignited her passion for women’s financial inclusion worldwide. While in the GHD Program, Rachel hopes to gain a deeper understanding of social enterprise and private sector development and how these intersect with gender-based violence. She is particularly looking forward to improving her knowledge of impact investing and program design and evaluation.