DIRECTOR, ABLE AMERICANS
Rachel K. Barkley, director of the National Center’s Able Americans program, has a decade of experience connecting Members of Congress, state and national think tank leaders, corporate stakeholders, state legislators, governors, advocacy professionals, and media influencers around shared goals. She has overseen the strategy for multi-state issue campaigns, executed many communication plans, managed the development of policy agendas, and advanced federal legislation spanning a variety of issues and committees through coalition action.
Rachel was the External Relations Senior Advisor to Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05). Previously, she also worked as Director of Outreach for the U.S. House of Representatives Conference Chair and as Director of Coalitions and State Outreach for the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress. Rachel got her start at a national non-profit for state policy think tanks, State Policy Network, where she worked as a liaison between state and national organizations.
She started RK Barkley Consulting in 2019 and has represented a diverse array of clients from the tech and innovation, financial services, and nonprofit think tank sectors. She serves clients in an external relations and strategic leadership capacity—executing coalition development, event strategies, marketing plans, speaking engagements, and organizational brand advising. Rachel also has led strategic planning and project management for her clients and coalitions. She is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Opportunity, a multi-state coalition to advance an anti-poverty and upward mobility agenda.
Just three weeks after having her first baby and turning 30, Rachel was diagnosed with a rare spinal cord tumor that threatened her life. The tumor and surgery to remove it left her as a quadriplegic. She and her husband, Taylor, survived months in hospitals, near death, rehabilitation, and their return home accompanied by work to regain their family life and movement in Rachel’s body. This life-altering experience has changed how she approaches health care, disability, and safety net policy reform.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Assisted Suicide Degrades the Value of Disabled Lives (InsideSources, April 2024)
Human Dignity and the New Values Voter (RealClearPolicy, April 2021)