Meet Rachel Glitz, Healthcare Foundation Board Member

As a glance at her Board bio makes clear, Rachel comes to the Healthcare Foundation with a wealth of experience in healthcare and nonprofit law, public policy, and fundraising. Her interest in healthcare precedes even her early work in D.C. with the Senate Finance Committee (which has a Health Care subcommittee) and her work at EMILY’s List, which provides financial support and strategic advice to Democratic women who are running for elective office and whose policy position is pro-choice. 

“Healthcare policy is a long-standing interest of mine,” she confirms. “I took a course in college on healthcare systems, and [in law school] I took healthcare law classes.”

In her ten years as an attorney, Rachel practiced in the area of regulatory compliance and transactions at the firm of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP and as in-house counsel at McKesson Corporation, serving their pharmaceutical distribution business and also the McKesson Foundation.

After several years overseas with her family, Rachel says she is excited to be returning to the healthcare arena in ways that directly improve the lives of people in her community and allow scope for systemic change that can make healthcare more equitable and accessible for all. We spoke with her recently about her path to the Healthcare Foundation and the perspective she brings to the work ahead.

What was your prior professional experience with healthcare?

I was a healthcare attorney, which in California also means you’re a nonprofit attorney. I practiced for about ten years in private practice and also worked for McKesson. I was interested in healthcare policy even before that. I remember taking a class in college that really intrigued me, and before I went to law school I worked in government and politics, and was partly motivated by that experience to pursue healthcare further.  

Over that time you must have seen a lot of change in the healthcare system overall, it’s growing complexity for one?

Yes, it’s a mess. It’s just gotten worse from my perspective. (I think many people would probably share my perspective.) I always wanted to be a part of a solution, which motivated me in going into healthcare law—although I found that it was not the avenue to solving healthcare policy issues. That doesn’t mean I didn’t provide valuable services, but the job involved, basically, navigating the system that we had. It’s wonderful to now be in a space where I can contribute to improving the system of care we have. I’m eager to be making a positive impact for people who have to navigate the healthcare system, which is all of us really. That’s very meaningful to me.

What brought you to the Healthcare Foundation in particular?

It was a personal relationship with a Board member. Ingrid [Maltrud] and I are friends. I had been wanting to engage in community service, to contribute beyond the immediate needs of my family and give back to my community in a meaningful way. Ingrid helped me with that searching and reflection. But perhaps I should back up a little to explain what had brought me to that point. 

I was practicing law in San Francisco for McKesson when my husband got an opportunity that took us abroad. We left in 2011 and ended up living in Indonesia for seven years. I couldn’t practice law in Indonesia without getting relicensed, so I had this break. In it, I started doing fundraising work and other work for nonprofits—my children’s school, first of all, but also other nonprofits that served people in dire poverty. I developed a lot of experience in fundraising, so when I came back to California I focused on that work for my children’s school here. 

After I left Sonoma Academy, it was a good opportunity to reassess what I wanted to do. I was quite interested in getting back into the healthcare arena but in a way that felt different, less like maintaining the status quo and more like helping to move things in a better direction. I came to the Board after some very intentional thinking about where I wanted to put my energy and Ingrid helped me get there. She also took me to a couple of events, where I got to meet supporters and Board members and learn more about what the Foundation does. I was really intrigued. The Mental Health Talent Pipeline struck me in particular, and reminded me of some of the work I had done in the past supporting first-generation students in the college process. That was one of my favorite parts of the work I did in my prior job.

Can you say a little about the other position you recently started? 

At the same time that I came onto the Healthcare Foundation Board, I took the executive director position at Cancer Support Sonoma, which is obviously also healthcare related. We serve cancer patients and the people who love them with supplemental services to their medical treatment. We’re delivering services like acupuncture, acupressure, oncology massage, yoga, mental health services, and end of life services. Those two things came together at once. I joined the Board in January and I took that position in January.

“There’s so much being done in terms of outreach, to connect with different communities in the region to better understand what people actually need and what they actually want (not what somebody thinks they want).”

Rachel Glitz

What are your impressions so far as a Board member?

I’ve been impressed with all of the members of the Board who I’ve had a chance to spend time with and the staff—not only their skill sets but also their dedication to the work of the Foundation, their commitment. It’s inspiring. I’m also very impressed with Amy. She’s pretty new, too, and having assumed my current role at Cancer Support Sonoma, I have even more respect for all that she has taken on and all that she has already achieved in such a short time. I love her energy and her passion for this work, and I look to her for guidance in how we can better connect with every facet of our community. The steps being taken to diversify our Board, for viewpoints and life experience and background, is great. And there’s so much being done in terms of outreach, to connect with different communities in the region to better understand what people actually need and what they actually want (not what somebody thinks they want), so that we can better help to provide those services. All of this is very appealing to me, and it says a lot about the organization and why I wanted to be a part of it.

What is it you most admire or appreciate about northern Sonoma County?

​​I love Sonoma County for all the obvious reasons — it is beautiful, and it has phenomenal resources for being outdoors, for eating good food, drinking good wine, and so much more. But also because of the several different communities of friends, colleagues and organizations that I have been welcomed into since I moved here. I think that joining the expat community in Bali taught me how to engage and connect with others in ways I might not otherwise have explored — good training for moving here and starting fresh, back in 2018, when we decided not to return to San Francisco but to make northern Sonoma County our home.