Rachel Johnson originally hails from Toronto, ON, and found her way to Santa Barbara for graduate school at UCSB and never left. Transitioning from academia into the non-profit sector, Rachel has amassed over twenty years of program development and grants management experience in museums, K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, and throughout the nonprofit sector. Her professional strengths include federal grants, general grantseeking, strategic partnerships, program development and evaluation, equitable data practices, corporate and foundation relations, and team management. Her personal mission is rooted in equity, social justice, and educational access, priorities shared by the SBCC Foundation and other organizations to which Rachel devotes her time.

Rachel joined the Foundation in 2017 as the Director of Grants and became Chief Program Officer in 2021. Working with nearly every corner of the College, Rachel oversees institutional grants, discretionary and emergency funds, program support funds, and the SBCC Promise team. Over the past four years, Rachel has raised over $5 million in grant funds for the College and distributed millions more back to programs.