Meet Rachel.
Hi, I’m Rachel.
I’m running for Saginaw City Council because I believe local government should be practical, transparent, and rooted in the everyday lives of the people who live here.
I grew up in central Ohio in a blue-collar family, and I started working young. Before I turned 25, I had worked in fast food, restaurants, landscaping, telemarketing, and grocery stores. Those jobs taught me a lot about hard work, but they also taught me how much it matters to have systems that actually work for regular people.
I know what it feels like to be busy, stretched thin, and trying to make things work. That perspective has stayed with me throughout my career.
I’ve spent my life helping people solve problems.
I started organizing when I was young. I worked with Lesbian Avengers, helped win anonymous HIV testing on my rural college campus, and took part in direct action opposing the escalation of the war in Iraq.
Over the past 25 years, I’ve worked in strategy, communications, research, organizational development, capacity building, and nonprofit leadership. I’ve helped organizations figure out how to communicate clearly, make better decisions, build stronger teams, and turn ambitious ideas into real-world action.
I was also the founding executive director of Upwell, a social media PR agency with a pretty unusual client: the ocean.
That work taught me something I carry into everything I do: big problems become more manageable when people have good information, strong relationships, and a clear way to work together.
Why Saginaw?
After several decades in the Bay Area, I made Saginaw my home.
I’m still relatively new here, and I think it’s important to say that plainly. I’m not running because I think I know everything about Saginaw. I’m running because I care deeply about this community, I’m committed to listening, and I believe I have skills and experience that can be useful.
Serving on Saginaw’s Planning Commission for the past 18 months has been challenging and fun, and I’m ready to step into more leadership.
What I see in Saginaw is a city with enormous possibility.
There are people here who care deeply about their neighborhoods. There is history worth protecting, creativity worth investing in, and real opportunity to build a stronger future.
As new investment comes into Saginaw, I want to help make sure the people who already live here benefit from it. Growth should mean better neighborhoods, good jobs, more housing choices, stronger public spaces, and opportunity that reaches every part of the city.
The kind of council member I want to be
I believe elected officials should be accessible.
I want people to be able to understand what City Council is doing, why decisions are being made, and how they can weigh in. I want city government to communicate clearly and treat residents like partners rather than an audience.
I also believe in doing the less glamorous work well. Streets, services, housing, neighborhood conditions, public spaces, city finances, and the basic systems people rely on every day matter enormously.
Not every problem has an easy answer. But residents deserve leaders who will listen carefully, ask good questions, do their homework, and be honest about the choices in front of us.
That’s the kind of council member I want to be.
A little more about me
I use they/them pronouns, and I live with Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) from Long COVID.
Living with a disability from chronic illness has made me even more aware of how much accessibility matters—not just physical accessibility, but whether government is understandable, meetings are reachable, information is easy to find, and people have more than one way to participate.
I believe a healthy city makes room for people in all kinds of circumstances and at all stages of life.
Mostly, I’m someone who likes solving problems, asking questions, bringing people together, and figuring out how we can make things work a little better.
I’d be honored to serve Saginaw.