Previously serving as the Senior Program Leader for UUSC’s Rights at Risk Program, she has spearheaded, planned, and implemented UUSC’s work responding to humanitarian crises and advancing the rights of people who are most overlooked or discriminated against in crises such as forced migration, large-scale conflicts, genocide, and natural disasters. Prior to joining UUSC, Freed was deeply engaged in community struggles around the world. This work included successful litigation against Exxon for violations of the Clean Air Act in the Houston Baytown shipping channel, arguing for the right to seek asylum before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and representing low-income immigrants and detained asylum-seekers pursuing relief from unjust deportation in New York City. She has also helped youth serve as peace witnesses in Gujurat, Northern India, after communal rioting and worked with the legal team that prosecuted former President of Liberia Charles Taylor and leaders of the rebel forces through the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Rachel currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Human Rights Funders Network, the Board of Mavuno in the Congo, and works with progressive women’s community organizing groups in the Boston area.

Rachel holds an undergraduate degree with a focus in International Development from the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs and a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School.

rfreed @ uusc.org