Rachel Johnson originally hails from Toronto, ON, and (like so many!) 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 fifteen 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 strategic partnerships, program development and evaluation, equitable data practices, grantseeking, 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 $2 million in grant funds for the College and distributed millions more back to programs.
Rachel currently serves as the Chair of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s Federal Funding Task Force, which advocates for increased access to federal grant funding for community colleges nationwide, and as co-chair of the Fund for Santa Barbara’s Grantmaking Committee, which funds movement building and equity initiatives throughout Santa Barbara County. Her board service includes the Executive Committee of the Santa Barbara Food Action Network, Stories Portraits, and CalSOAP Santa Barbara. Rachel is also an alumna of the Leading from Within Emerging Leaders Program and the Women in Leadership Program at Antioch University.
Contact Information
Position Title: Chief Program Officer
Telephone number: (805) 730-4420
E-mail address: johnson@sbccfoundation.org
