Rachel Marcuse

Accomplishments, Presentations and Publications

• Selected conference presentations:

  • Society for Human Resources Management (2022), “Using Peer Support to Navigate Uncertainty”

  • North American Association of Chief Administrators (2022) “Aligning Values in Talent Attraction”

  • NOBL Collective Change at Work Conference (2020), “Equity in the Wake of COVID-19” (video)

  • Silicon Valley Corporate Learning Week, “Training the New Manager” (2018), “Onboarding at Scale” (2019)

• Frequent blogger for ReadySet; selected:

  • Generational Differences at Work

  • Alternative Workweek Series: Why AWW

  • How to Lead (Mediocrely) While Working From Home With Kids

  • Addressing World Events at Work (includes video)

  • Distributed Work Tips and Tricks

• Interviewed regularly on HR topics (example here)

• Publications include: “Occupy, Resist and Produce: Class Consciousness and the Argentine Movement of Recovered Factories” (Verstehen journal, McGill University); contributions to The Georgia Straight, Rabble.ca and Seven Oaks; nominated for the Hillman Prize for investigative journalism (2011)

• Guest lecturer at Langara College on young women activists (2008) and Middlebury College on theory of change (2021)

• Millennium Excellence National In-Course Laureate, top level (2004-2006)

Rachel Marcuse is the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner of ReadySet, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm. She is also an independent consultant specializing in organizational development, management and facilitation.

Rachel was the former Vice President of People Operations (HR) of Tom Steyer entities, including NextGen America, which runs the largest democratic SuperPac in the U.S. In that role, she scaled the organization from 20 to nearly 1000 employees.

Prior to her work at NextGen America, Rachel worked at Outbrain, where she led organizational development and grew the company from 90 to 500 staff and 2-14 cities in addition to leading a global learning and development program and supervising U.S. Human Resources.

Rachel has trained thousands of people and organizations in leadership and employee development skills on topics including effective interviewing, bias in management relationships, running HR investigations, inclusive communication, and much more. She has facilitated management workshops for new leaders, run strategic planning processes, served as an executive coach for CEO’s and other seasoned leaders and is a trusted advisor in many high-profile organizational contexts.

Her experience spans a range of sectors, including start-ups, universities, non-profits and political organizations. Rachel’s current and past clients include DonorsChoose, Defender Association of Philadelphia, GetThru, Verizon, California State Assembly, The Appeal, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Think LA, Berkley Human Rights Commission, Appfolio, Durie Tangri LLP, Beto for Texas and Columbia University.

Previous to her people ops work, Rachel was the Executive Director of a Vancouver municipal political party and was the youngest person in Canadian history to run a major city election campaign. She holds a master's degree in Organizational Change from the New School for Public Engagement and an honors bachelor’s degree in Sociology from McGill University. On weekends, Rachel teaches full force self defense and personal boundary setting for Impact Bay Area (when it’s not a pandemic and) when she’s not spending time with her kids and husband.

Rachel is also available for expert witness work.