Rachel Rios-Richardson is a millennial who grew up in Tucson with her parents and her brother. Rachel identifies as a white, queer, cisgender woman, and her pronouns are she/her/hers. She and her wife of over four years currently live in Tucson. Living in Tucson gives Rachel and her wife the opportunity to help care for Rachel’s mother in her own home, supporting her independence and her health care needs associated with a neurological disorder and a traumatic brain injury.
Rachel, herself, identifies as a person who has a mental health disability. Her mental health symptoms sometimes have a bigger impact on her life than at other times, but she is always proactively working to maintain her mental health. In addition, Rachel feels fortunate to have friends and family members who have a variety of disabilities.
Rachel attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion. After college she spent two years of service with Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC). This experience was foundational to her career and personal life, as she met her wife through JVC. While living in the Bay area, she began working to advocate for others who have disabilities. Rachel started her career as a legal advocate in disability rights, in California. She felt privileged to work with people who have mental health disabilities in psychiatric hospitals, jails, and community settings. Later, she shifted into a role at Disability Rights California where she focused on helping people navigate accessing vocational rehabilitation services. Through this work, she really enjoyed getting to work with people from diverse disability communities.
About 3 years ago, Rachel made the decision to return to school to pursue her Master’s in Social Work. She focused her studies on macro or “big picture” social work, which emphasizes social justice work related to programs, policies, systems, and communities. After graduating from Arizona State University in 2020, Rachel began working in Tucson as an Evaluation Associate. She is enjoying working with a variety of stakeholders to help evaluate the progress that programs are making toward their goals.
It may come as no surprise that Rachel is passionate about mental health, suicide prevention, health equity, disability access, and racial justice work. She has skills and experience in the areas of training and facilitation, legal advocacy, case management, and program evaluation. Although she has over a decade of experience working to support and improve the lives of others, as a white person, she knows and believes that she needs to continue to deepen her anti-racism work and acknowledge both how she benefits from white privilege, and the harm she may cause as a white person, when she fails to challenge racist systems and behaviors.
There are a number of ways that Rachel supports her own mental health. These activities include spending time outdoors and being on the move through swimming and kayaking. She also enjoys spending time with her friends and family, including her niece and nephew as well as her two spunky and curmudgeonly (respectively!) dogs, Sadie and Skylar. She often recharges by spending time with her wife and dogs, hiking, playing games, and traveling whenever they can. Rachel is becoming a passionate fan of women’s basketball, especially the Phoenix Mercury, but her all-time favorite activity is spending time in the ocean, boogie boarding!
Rachel first learned about Diverse Ability Incorporated through her social work internship with the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disability. She feels fortunate to have worked on a success story project connected to Arizona Employment First, which afforded her the opportunity to interview several Arizona Youth Leadership Initiatives (AZYLI) alumnae, highlighting their successful employment journeys. Rachel was incredibly impressed by their leadership and work in promoting disability rights. She is looking forward to deepening her connection with Diverse Ability Incorporated as a new Elder member of the Board of Directors.